"I shouldn't have had the pluck," he continued. "I see a thing all
round, as it were; but Heyst doesn't, or else he would have been scared.
You don't take a woman into a desert jungle without being made sorry for
it sooner or later, in one way or another; and Heyst being a gentleman
only makes it worse."




CHAPTER SIX


We said no more about Heyst on that occasion, and it so happened that
I did not meet Davidson again for some three months. When we did come
together, almost the first thing he said to me was:

"I've seen him."

Before I could exclaim, he assured me that he had taken no liberty,
that he had not intruded. He was called in. Otherwise he would not have
dreamed of breaking in upon Heyst's privacy.

"I am certain you wouldn't," I assured him, concealing my amusement at
his wonderful delicacy. He was the most delicate man that ever took a
small steamer to and fro among the islands. But his humanity, which was
not less strong and praiseworthy, had induced him to take his
steamer past Samburan wharf (at an average distance of a mile) every
twenty-three days--exactly. Davidson was delicate, humane, and regular.