And the more
frightened they are the more powerful is the inhibition. In any case
it was useless to question Sami so we fed him instead and presently
he went to sleep.
I suppose we all forgot him. I know I did. One doesn't elope every
day. And it was never Sami's way to insist upon his presence as
ordinary children do. Li Ho departed to tinker with the "Tillicum"
and afterwards returned to give us a late supper. Desire kept out of
my way. One might almost have thought that she was shy--if so, a
most perplexing development. For why should she feel shy? It wasn't
as if we had not put the whole affair on a perfectly business basis.
Perhaps there is some elemental magic in names, so that, to a woman,
the very word "marriage" has power to provoke certain nervous
reactions?
However that may be, even Desire forgot Sami. We left the house just
as the clearing began to grow brighter with light from the still
hidden moon, and we were halfway down to the boat landing before
anyone thought of him. Oddly enough it was I who remembered. "Sami!"
I exclaimed, with a little throb of nameless fear. "We have
forgotten Sami."
Desire, I thought, looked surprised and somewhat vexed at her
oversight. But displayed no trace of the consternation which had
suddenly fallen on me.
"He is all right," she said. "He will sleep till morning unless his
mother comes for him."
"Where you leave um?" asked Li Ho briefly. He had already set down
the bag he was carrying.
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