You arrived on the scene before I did. I am now convinced of
this. I shall not dispute the ownership of the quarry. It is
yours. This statement over my signature is your guarantee that
I shall never interfere with your title to the coquina quarry
on Ibis Island.
So now I've got to return to New York and go to work. I'm going
across to Augustine in a few moments; and while I'm there I'll
engage a white woman as companion for you, and a white servant,
and have them drive over at once so they will reach your
bungalow before evening. With undisputed title to the quarry,
you can easily afford their wages.
Good-bye. I wish you every happiness and success. Please give
my love to the dog.
Yours very truly,
JOHNSON GRAY.
"It's the only way out of it," he muttered. "I'll leave it with her and
bolt before she reads it. There is nothing else to do, absolutely
nothing."
As he came out of his cabin, the sun hung low and red above the palm
forest, and a few bats were already flying like tiny black devils above
the scrub.
There was a strip of beach near his cabin, and he went down to it and
began to tramp up and down with a vague idea of composing himself so
that he might accomplish what he had to do gracefully, gaily, and with
no suspicion of striking an attitude for gods and men to admire his
moral resignation and his heroic renunciation.
No; he'd do the thing lightly, smilingly, determined that she should not
think that it was a sacrifice. No; she must believe that a sense of
fairness alone moved him to an honest recognition of her claims. He must
make it plain to her that he really believed she had arrived at the
quarry before he had.
And so he meant to leave her the letter, say good-bye, and go.
When this was all settled in his mind he looked at the ocean very
soberly, then turned his back on the Atlantic and walked back to his
cabin to gather up his effects.
As he approached the closed door a desolate howl from the interior
greeted him: he sprang to the door and flung it open; and the puppy
rushed into his arms.
Then, pinned to the scorpion-infested wall, he saw a sheet of writing,
and he read: