Free The Black Pearl by Scott O’Dell

live out in the open, without shelters of any kind. From the hill we saw that evening fires were burning and people had gathered around them and that their black canoes lay in a neat row on the shore. We decided, therefore, that no one had seen us sail into the cove.
    We turned the boat over and emptied the water that had almost swamped us and ate more of the corn cakes. By then it was night.
    "We wait for an hour," said the Sevillano. "That will give the manta time to find another boat to follow."
    "We can wait for an hour or for a day," I said, "but he will be there still."
    "What do you mean?"
    "I mean that the one out there is the Manta Diablo."
    It was too dark to see his face, but I knew that the Sevillano was staring at me as though I had lost all my senses.
    "Santa Maria!" he cried. "I am aware that ignorant Indians believe in the Manta Diablo. But that you who have been to school and can read books, one of the mighty Salazars himself, should believe this fairy tale. Santa Rosalia, it surprises me!"
    "Furthermore," I said, "he is waiting out there for the pearl and he will wait until he gets it."
    The Sevillano was leaning against the boat. He stood up and came over to where I sat.
    "If I throw the pearl into the sea," he said, "the manta will take it, swim away and leave us alone. Is that what you are getting at?"
    "Yes."
    The Sevillano turned his back and walked over to the boat and gave it a thump with his foot, I guess to show his disgust. He then strolled off in the dark, as if he wished to be as far away from me as possible.
    The moon rose. Soon afterwards, from the hill above, I heard the soft cries and rustle of birds. Something had disturbed the terns that had flown in at sunset to nest. As I glanced up, I saw a figure outlined against the sky.
    I jumped to my feet, but did not call to the Sevillano. Here was a chance to rid myself of him. I could climb the hill and tell the Indian who stood there why I had landed on the island. He might give me help, for he would understand about the Manta Diablo.
    It was a dangerous plan, yet it might have succeeded had not the Sevillano seen the Indian, too.
    "We go!" he shouted.
    I hesitated for a moment, watching the Indian on the hill above me. The nesting terns began to scream and flutter about, so I was certain that other Indians had come up from the village to join him.
    The Sevillano ran to the boat and turned it over and stowed the supplies that lay on the sand.
    "Hurry," he shouted at me.
    I walked over to the boat and helped him shove it into the water. Where the pearl was I did not know, whether hidden in the boat or in his pocket.
    "Perhaps you would like to stay," the Sevillano said. "The Indians of Los Muertos dig a pit in the sand and put you in it up to your chin and then let the turtles nibble at your face. But maybe you would like this better than the Manta Diablo."
    The boat was floating and the Sevillano had picked up the oars.
    "Do you go or stay?" he said.
    A shower of arrows came whistling down from the hill and struck the sand. There was nothing for me to do now except to scramble into the boat, which I did just as a second flight of arrows churned the water around us.
    The moon was near to full and the air was clear and the sea stretched away like a bed of silver. There were no signs of the Manta Diablo. The Sevillano put up the sail, though the wind had died, and both of us rowed hard, fearing that the Indians would launch their canoes. For a long time we heard their shouts, but they did not try to follow us.
    When we left the lee of the island, we picked up a light breeze. The Sevillano reset the sail and took a sight on the North Star and steered the boat eastward along the moon's path.

16
    A T SUNRISE the island of Los Muertos lay behind us. The air was heavy and scarcely a ripple showed on the sea. Over and around us hung a thin, red mist, but I did not locate the Manta Diablo until more than an hour had passed.
    It was then that a needlefish,