But then, they spoke English. He laughed lightly. Probably Englishmen. But why are they here? He gave it up and started back toward their camp.
On his way back to camp he made discoveries that deepened the already ominous mystery of the island. He had covered half the distance when a fluttering bit of white against the dark trunk of a huge teakwood tree caught his eye. He hurried toward it.
He discovered that it was pinned there by three thorns. It was a note written on paper made from a thin slice cut out of the stem of a palm frond and bleached in the sun. The message was printed, but not crudely done. It read:
Don’t trust those men with the strange plane. We think they are dangerous. We have heard them talking German.
That was all. The note was not signed. Who were “we”? To this there was no answer.
Jack felt a warm wave of friendliness sweep over him as he pocketed the note. Some one on this island wished to befriend him. A vision of the tall, slender girl whose roast pork had so excited the natives, and whose smile was most engaging, came before his eyes.
She might have written it, he told himself. Then again, perhaps not. There might be white people hiding on the island. Who knows?
Suddenly, as he rounded a coco plum bush, he caught a glimpse of that same girl. She was on her knees at the foot of a great coconut palm tree.
Seems to be praying to the spirit of the palm, he thought, as he watched her from the shadows.
He knew soon enough that his guess was poor. The girl was removing dried leaves and palm fronds from a spot at the foot of a tree. After throwing aside a square of brown canvas, she carefully lifted something white from its place of hiding.
Jack could not see what this was, but he was not long in finding out, for the girl stood up and held before her a white dress.
“An Army nurse’s uniform,” Jack whispered to himself. He shuddered involuntarily.
In a twinkling, without removing her thin, one-piece garment, the girl had the white dress on, and a cap of white on her hair.
After that, attired as a nurse, she did a strange little dance all by herself. Stooping over, she took a small square mirror from the hiding place. This she hung against the tree. Standing there, she surveyed herself in the mirror. Jack too, caught a glimpse of her face in the glass. Her dark face stood out strangely against the stark white of her dress. There was a curious look of animation and amusement on her face. Once she laughed, then shook her fist at the face in the mirror.