" So I judged it was a peaceful island,
and likely Craney had found something worth trading for. We went
ashore every day, but not inland. We were satisfied to stay on the
beach, and to watch the naked little children dive in the surf, and
to play tag with the population.
But one day I followed a path a mile inland, and climbed a hill and
saw an open valley to the south with several hundred palm-leaf huts,
and farther up was more open country and some hills beyond thickly
wooded. I judged the island was twenty miles north and south, but
couldn't see how far it went westward, and coming back, found a note
for me: "O. K. I never see folks so open to conviction. Yours, J. R."
It was Craney's business, and not mine. I thought to myself,
sometimes these men you'd think lunatic weren't that way, only they
had their point of view. Next day there was another note: "Two of 'em
are dead. I guess it's a good thing. I bought it anyway. Julius R."
And while I was thinking it over, and thinking sometimes these men
that claimed they'd got a point of view were really lunatic, Craney
came back. He must have had three hundred natives following him, and
they camped on the beach and seemed to rejoice, for they danced and
sang most of the night, while he and I sat on the deck and talked it
over,
"This island," says Craney, "is full of politics.
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