Each knew that in the heart of the others was sufficient treachery
to make it unsafe for any member of the party to go ashore leaving
the others in possession of the Cowrie, so not more than two or
three men at a time were ever permitted aboard the vessel unless
all the balance of the company was there too.
As the two crossed toward Gust's tent the Maori felt the edge of
his long knife with one grimy, calloused thumb. The Swede would
have felt far from comfortable could he have seen this significant
action, or read what was passing amid the convolutions of the brown
man's cruel brain.
Now it happened that Gust was at that moment in the tent occupied
by the cook, and this tent stood but a few feet from his own. So
that he heard the approach of Kai Shang and Momulla, though he did
not, of course, dream that it had any special significance for him.
Chance had it, though, that he glanced out of the doorway of the
cook's tent at the very moment that Kai Shang and Momulla approached
the entrance to his, and he thought that he noted a stealthiness
in their movements that comported poorly with amicable or friendly
intentions, and then, just as they two slunk within the interior,
Gust caught a glimpse of the long knife which Momulla the Maori
was then carrying behind his back.
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