Renouard's strong voice on his side of the door gave him most
unexpected instructions. He was to pay off the boys with the cash
in the office and arrange with the captain of the Janet to take
every worker away from Malata, returning them to their respective
homes. An order on the Dunster firm would be given to him in
payment.

And again the silence of the bungalow remained unbroken till, next
morning, the half-caste came to report that everything was done.
The plantation boys were embarking now.

Through a crack in the door a hand thrust at him a piece of paper,
and the door slammed to so sharply that Luiz stepped back. Then
approaching cringingly the keyhole, in a propitiatory tone he
asked:

"Do I go too, master?"

"Yes. You too. Everybody."

"Master stop here alone?"

Silence. And the half-caste's eyes grew wide with wonder. But he
also, like those "ignorant savages," the plantation boys, was only
too glad to leave an island haunted by the ghost of a white man.
He backed away noiselessly from the mysterious silence in the
closed room, and only in the very doorway of the bungalow allowed
himself to give vent to his feelings by a deprecatory and pained -

"Tse! Tse! Tse!"