Chapter 6
Queen Kiteene
WHEN THE SKIPPER and Halpin left Charters and myself upon the shore, the bends of the road, mounting rapidly and giving vistas of the bay and of the hills behind of devastating loneliness, brought them ultimately to a village in a high flat set in a couch of hills. Although the walls of the houses or huts were of palm thatch neatly-bound, the place had an appearance more distinguished than that of native villages generally; it was trimly kept and the squalor in usual native villages was absent. Indeed on all sides the dull-looking workers were busy, tending small gardens with which many of the huts were surrounded, cleaning away dried and unsightly patches, and weaving fanciful patterns in fresh leaves on the exteriors.
One of the workers happened to pause, looki
