Joe obliged so we could all examine his back. There were two brown
stains on his shoulder blades as there should be, but Bailey was not
satisfied. He poked a finger into them and examined the skin under the
hair. "Mango pitch!" he announced. "Stained clean down to the skin. Did
you do that, Joe?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I knew you would force me to go into the ship with the others if I
didn't have the stain."
Benson looked up, shocked. "Then you--you knew what we were trying to
do?"
"Yes. You and Samrogers spoke of it outside the hut one day. You thought
I was asleep. Some of your words puzzled me, so I stayed away from the
ship. Then I found out what they meant."
"But you helped us get the others to go into the ship!"
"It was what you wanted," Joe said simply. "Later, when we went south,
the females saw that only Joe's favorites continued to have babies. So
Joe became very--popular."