They entered the café and sat down on the two wooden chairs that Manon had salved from one of the houses. The coming of Bibi had introduced a sudden sinister complexity into the adventure, an element of discord, a threat of competition. Brent refilled his pipe. He looked worried.
“We had better begin on those huts,” he said; “I’ll get the tools together and go down at once.”
Manon restrained him.
“No, not yet. We must wait.”
“Till that fellow has gone?”
She nodded.
“Bibi is cunning. He has come here to see what he can find—and there is no generosity to be expected from Bibi. We must not betray what we are doing. When he has driven off in that cart of his, then we can work like slaves.”
“There will be a moon to-night,” said Brent; “I shall work all night. We must store the sheeting i
