Manon nodded. `I'll do what I can; but once he is set on a thing, it is next to impossible to dissuade him from doing it.'
As she stood up, he lurched forward and grabbed her by the wrist. `Not so fast, little one. We've lost a night together, but there is still time to get up an appetite for our petit dejeuuer.'
`No!' She ? HYPERLINK “file:///C:\\Program%20Files\\Book%20Designer%204.0\\Temp\\tmp1\\2\\which%2039.html0” \l “http://tried.to/#http://tried.to/” ?tried to? pull away. `No, Pierre. I'm not feeling like that sort of thing.'
His good humour restored by his belief that he would be able to get away with the treasure before his enemies reached Tujoa, he gave a great guffaw and cried, `You will, ma belle, in another two minutes, I promise you!'
Still grasping her wrist, he jumped out of bed, swung her round and pushed her backwards on to it. Her struggle was brief and vain. Next moment his heavy body was pinning her down. Relaxing, she closed her eyes and, submitting to the animal ferocity which was his principal attraction for her, gave herself to him willingly.
At nine o'clock Gregory telephoned her, and they agreed to meet downstairs at eleven. When she appeared she was, as ever, dressed with exquisite taste and her make up had been so skilfully applied that the sallowness of her skin was not perceptible. Her eyes seemed so large that they detracted attention from her receding chin. Her step was buoyant with the vitality of youth and as, smiling, she extended her hand for Gregory to kiss, he thought again that, dubious as her morals might be, he was lucky as a man no longer young to have acquired such an enchanting companion.
The weather being warm, but not too hot, they decided to walk the half mile to the town and, perhaps, do some shopping. In a shop run by Chinese they saw some richly embroidered jackets and wraps, so he bought several of them for her. Then, as they came out of the shop, they ran into Mr. Hunt.
When Gregory had thanked him for the excellent arrangements made by his travel service he said, `If you would like to do something rather special tomorrow I could fix it up for you. The natives on Beqa are doing a fire walk. That does not happen often, and it is unique. The Indian fakirs walk on hot ashes, but these chaps walk over white hot stones a far more hazardous test of faith and will power. I've a boat going over to the island with a party of Americans, and if you like I could arrange for you to go with them.'
Gregory and Manon at once agreed that they would like to see this extraordinary performance. They then strolled on past the market, down to the harbour and went on board the Boa Viagem.
James and Manon greeted each other pleasantly, as old acquaintances, but it was the first time the two women had met. As they exchanged courtesies, Gregory was amused to see them sizing each other up. Olinda’s eyes, he noted, swept over Manon's clothes, that singled her out, even in the tropics, as a Parisienne. Manon's first glance was at a solitaire diamond which Gregory estimated to be worth several thousand pounds that Olinda was now wearing on her engagement finger,
After a few minutes the four of them were at ease together and soon enjoying well iced drinks. James was positively glowing with happiness, and Olinda kept glancing at him with obvious delight and pride. Gregory mentioned the expedition to Beqa, and asked if they would like to come, too. James said he had seen it before, when in his teens, but Olinda was enthralled by the idea; so Gregory rang up Mr. Hunt, who obligingly said that he would somehow manage to squeeze two more people into the party.
Olinda insisted that her visitors should stay to lunch, and it proved a merry meal, Manon contributing, by her wit and charm, an outstanding share to their gaiety.
Afterwards Gregory took Olinda aside and asked her if she would do him the kindness to invite Manon to accompany them when they left for Tujoa, and Olinda readily agreed.
Half an hour later Gregory and Manon drove back to the Grand Pacific in a taxi, went to their rooms for their siestas, then met again to swim in the late afternoon. Drinks and dinner followed. Having nothing more to fear from Lacost, she talked and laughed as though spring instead of blood coursed through her veins, so that Gregory was enchanted by her. Later that night, with her lovely body in his arms, he felt as though twenty years had dropped from him, and that from her soft, rich mouth he was drawing the Elixir of Life.
Back in his own room in the early hours, he thought again what a delightful travelling companion she would make. She had charm, wit, vivacity, was well educated and invariably soignée. No one could ever replace Erika for him, but Manon had everything bar one thing.
Wondering about the future, he dropped asleep, but slept only for three hours, as they had to make an early start for Beqa, and both of them had put in a call for six o'clock.
He had ordered a car for seven o'clock, as it was a drive of some twenty miles to the place where they were to take a boat out to the island. After picking up Olinda and James, they drove west out of Suva, passing the picturesque cemetery, and right round the bay into the flat, cattle country. From a lonely landing stage a small boat took them off to a tubby motor yacht some way out. The party of Americans was already on board and after exchanging polite greetings with some of them, they settled down for the ten mile sea trip.
The sea was choppy and the ship far from comfortable. They were told that it had formerly been Queen Salote's yacht, but found that difficult to believe, as the one lavatory could be entered from the cabin only by climbing a steep ladder and through a narrow door; so how so large a lady could have reached it with dignity it was hard to imagine. Manon made Gregory laugh by whispering bawdy comments on the possibilities.
The yacht anchored a good mile off the island, and the water was so shallow that a motor boat could not have taken them more than halfway to the shore. Two native rowing boats came off; but they had to make several trips before the twenty odd people in the party had all been landed by big, laughing fuzzy headed men carrying them through the shallows. Even then, as the tide was out, there was a quarter of a mile or more of muddy sand to be crossed between the water and the tangles of exposed mangrove roots that fringed the coast.
On dry land at last, they entered the village. Like all the others they had seen, there was no trace of squalor. Each bure stood well apart from the others, with neat rows of small, white stones marking the path to the door and here and there a palm to give a patch of shade.
There they were greeted by the Vunivalu and his Council of Elders. The Chief, a very old man, explained to them in good English that, as he had recently been ill, he would not be presiding at the ceremony. Then, showing special deference to James, he said that he would explain the proceedings
to his party and led the way with them up a steep, grassy slope just beyond the village.
Halfway up the slope there stood what amounted to a small grandstand, with two rows of chairs shaded from the sun by a palm thatch awning. The Chief bowed Olinda and Mason to chairs on either side of him, and when the rest of the party had taken their places he clapped his hands for the `welcome' ceremony to begin.
The usual yaggona drinking followed, the coconut shell bilo being first presented to James. Then, to the accompanying hollow hand claps, everyone else drank in turn.
About fifty feet below them, where the slope flattened out on to level ground, there lay a circular pit some twenty feet in circumference. The surface consisted of smouldering logs from which smoke was rising. Using careful English, in a low voice the old Chief told Olinda and Mason about this ancient custom of his country.