Samantha had looked all over town for Uncle Hector. He had disappeared from where the boat was docked. She thought perhaps he'd just gone into the forest to relieve himself. After an hour or so, she decided to go see if he had run into trouble. When she still didn't find anything, she went back into the village.
Strangely, Prudence, Rebecca, and Molly were all gone. "They left a while ago," Annie said. She and the other smaller children were roaming around town, playing and digging in the rubble for treasures.
"Where did they go?"
"I dunno. You wanna play with us?"
"That's all right. Maybe later." She tousled Annie's hair and smiled. Before she left, she asked, "Did Mr. Delgado stop back here?"
"No."
"Thanks. You kids be careful."
"We will."
Samantha left them to try down by the barns. She couldn't understand why Prudence and Rebecca would leave the younger children alone. They were too responsible for that. And much too responsible to take a baby with them.
She searched the barns, the fields, and even the woodshed without finding anyone. There seemed nowhere else to try except the fountain cave. As she closed in on the entrance of the cave, she heard grunting and groaning. It didn't have the feral growl of Pryde's dogs; it sounded much more human. By the time she reached the entrance, she heard what sounded like a sack of flour hitting the floor, followed by a groan.
She ran into the cave and found Uncle Hector squatting over David. The boy's body was limp and his face was bloody. "Uncle Hector?"
He got to his feet. When he turned to her, she saw blood dripping from his nose. He would probably have a black eye too before long. "Oh, Lucy, thank God."
"What happened here?"
"Little prick jumped me. I came back just to see if Molly had left anything behind. He must have followed me." He mumbled something in another language. Spanish, she remembered. Then he spit on David's unconscious body.
"Why would he do that?"
"So I couldn't take you kids from here. He wants to be king of the island."
Samantha considered this for a moment. She remembered David's reluctance to help them fix the boat. He didn't want them to leave the island. If he did incapacitate Uncle Hector, that would go a long way to making sure the Lady Jane never left the beach.
She threw herself against Uncle Hector, prompting him to grunt. "Sorry."
"It's all right, kid." She didn't realize she was crying until he touched her cheek and said, "Hey, hey, hey, none of that. I'm fine."