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By Root 8880 0

him like that. The worst of it was not having a friend to talk to about whatever he had on his mind when he got lonely. He wished he had a nice good looking fel ow who'd been around and wasn't a softy and knew what life was and could appre-ciate beauty for a friend, a fel ow like Joe in fact. His mother was awful y jealous and didn't like the idea of his having any intimate friends and would always get sick or try to hold out on his al owance when she found out about his having any friends, because she wanted him to be always tied to her apron strings but he was sick and tired of that and from now on he was going to do what he damn pleased, and she didn't have to know about

everything he did anyway.

He kept giving Joe cigarettes and offering them to

the chinaman who said each time, "Thank you very much, sir. I have forgone smoking." Between them they had finished the flask of punch and the man who said his name was Jones was beginning to edge over towards Joe in the seat, when the chinaman stopped the car at the end of a little path and said, "If you wish to view the Blue Pool you must walk up there almost seven minutes, sir. It is the principal attraction of the island of Trinidad." Joe hopped out of the car and went to make water be-side a big tree with shaggy red bark. The man who said

-21-his name was Jones came up beside him. "Two minds with but a single thought," he said. Joe said, "Yare," and went and asked the chinaman where they could see some mon-keys.

"The Blue: Pool," said the chinaman, "is one of their favorite resorts." He got out of the car and walked around it looking intently with his black beads of eyes into the foliage over their heads. Suddenly he pointed. Something black was behind a shaking bunch of foliage. A screechy giggle came from behind it and three monkeys went off flying from branch to branch with long swinging leaps. In a second they were gone and al you could see was the branches stirring at intervals through the woods where they jumped. One of them had a pinkish baby monkey

hanging on in front. Joe was tickled. He'd never seen monkeys real y wild like that before. He went off up the path, walking fast so that the man who said his name was Jones had He went off up the path, walking fast so that the man who said his name was Jones had trouble keeping up to him. Joe wanted to see some more monkeys.

After a few minutes' walk up hil he began to hear a waterfal . Something made him think of Great Fal s and Rock Creek and he went al soft inside. There was a pool under a waterfal hemmed in by giant trees. "Dod gast it, I've got a mind to take me a dip," he said. "Wouldn't there be snakes, Slim?""Snakes won't bother you, 'less you bother 'em first."

But when they got right up to the pool they saw that there were people picnicking there, girls in light pink and blue dresses, two or three men in white ducks, grouped under striped umbrel as. Two Hindoo servants were

waiting on them, bringing dishes out of a hamper. Across the pool came the chirp-chirp of cultivated English voices.

"Shoot, we can't go swimmin' here and they won't be any monkeys either."

"Suppose we joined them . . . I might introduce my-self and you would be my kid brother. I've got a letter

-22-to a Colonel Somebody but I felt too blue to present it."

"What the hel do they want to be fartin' around here for?" said Joe and started back down the path again. He didn't see any more monkeys and by the time he'd got back to the car big drops had started to fal .

"That'l spoil their goddarn picnic," he said, grinning to the man who said his name was Jones when he came up, the sweat running in streams down his face. "My, you're a fast walker, Slim." He puffed and patted him on the back. Joe got into the car. "I guess we're goin' to get it."

"Sirs," said the chinaman, "I wil return to the city for I perceive that a downpour is imminent."

By the time they'd gone a half a mile it was raining so hard the chinaman couldn't see to drive. He ran the car into a smal shed on the side of the road. The rain pounding on the tin roof overhead