Later on in the afternoon they bathed, and mother came down to the landing-place to see Roger swim. He swam three strokes on his front and managed six good kicks on his back.
“If you have got as far as that,” the female native said, “I think you can keep the knife. All you want now is practice.”
John wanted to swim round the island again to show her that he could do it, but she said that once was quite enough for one day. Titty did some pearl-diving. Susan swam a short race with John and very nearly beat him.
Then there was tea.
At last it was time to take Vicky home.
The empty hamper was carried down to the landing-place.
“How soon are you going to get tired of your island?” asked the female native.
“Never, never,” said the Swallows.
“You’ve been lucky to have good weather so far,” she said. “And you seem to be doing yourselves no harm. But there’s only another week before we must be going south. You can stay here until nearly the end of it, unless the weather breaks. If the weather breaks, I mean if the rainy season comes on, you’ll have to come away. In the rainy season desert islands, even the best of them, are almost uninhabitable.”
The Swallows looked at each other.
“A week’s a long time,” said mother.
“But we want to stay forever,” said Roger.
“I dare say you do,” said the female native.