"You look pretty cheerful," he said. "Things going well?"
"They've just begun to, I think--I think I've found the way to reach these people."
"Ah?" The monosyllable was incredulous though polite. "How's that?"
"I've just been ordering some furniture from a carpenter," Simpson answered. It was the first time since the day of his arrival that he had seen Witherbee to speak to, and he found it a relief to speak in his own language and without calculating the result of his words.
"Very well." The consul tipped back his chair and tapped his lips with a pencil. "Very well. He's a clever workman. He'll follow any design you give him, and the woods, of course, are excellent."
"Yes. He showed me some. But he's more than a carpenter to me. He's more--receptive--than most of the natives, and it seems that his shop is a gathering place--a centre. He asked me to come in the evenings."
"And drink rum?" Witherbee could not resist that.
"Ye-es. He said they drank rum. I sha'n't do that, of course, but one must begin where one can."
"I suppose so," Witherbee answered slowly. The office was darkened to just above reading-light, and the consul's face was in the shadow. Evidently he had more to say, but he allowed a long silence to intervene before he went on. Simpson, imaging wholesale conversions, sat quietly; he was hardly aware of his surroundings.
"Don't misunderstand what I'm going to say," the consul began at length. Simpson straightened, on his guard at once. "It may be of use to you--in your work," he added quickly. "It's this. Somehow--by chance perhaps, though I don't think so--you've fallen into strange company--stranger than any white man I've ever known."
"I am not afraid of voodoo," said Simpson rather scornfully.
"It would be better if you were a little afraid of it. I am--and I know what I'm talking about. Look what's happened to you. There's the Picard woman--she's the one who had President Simon Sam under her thumb. Did you know he carried the symbols of voodoo next his heart? And now Michaud, who's her right hand and has been for years. Looks like deep water to me."
"That's not what I mean exactly, though I wish you were a little more afraid for it. It might save me trouble--possibly save our government trouble--in the end. But the consequences of letting voodoo acquire any more power than it has may be far-reaching."