Thea looked up and smiled. "Maybe he's gone to Clarence's."

"We'll be lucky if he hasn't called the cops." Carla sighed. She shivered and rubbed her arms. "It's spooky here. Come on, Pumpkin, you're going to bed. And don't do this again."

Thea looked up at her and shook her head. She was smiling, but in the moonlight her eyes seemed empty. "I can't," she said simply. She looked directly into Carla's eyes and added, "I have to find my bucket."

Carla and Ellen glanced around. "It isn't here," said Carla. "You can find it in the morning."

Thea looked at Ellen, the court of last resort. "Grandma?"

Ellen hid a smile. "You heard your mother, Thea, dear. You've sort of scared us all."

"Don't be scared," Thea said wisely. She put up her hand for silence. "Listen."

From Neptune's Folly at the dock, a hundred yards. away, came a slow, steady drumbeat: Boom... boom ... boom...

The deckhouse was dark and the boat seemed deserted. "They must have left something on," said Carla. "I'd better take a look."

"Well, I'm looking for my bucket," insisted Thea. "It was right here on the beach."

"I'll stay with her while you check the boat," murmured Ellen. There was something strange in Thea's eyes. She thought of the loa and shuddered. Surely not again...

Carla shrugged and headed for the ketch.

***

Mike Brody, jogging in the moonlight along the path to Masthead Point, heard the drums long before he reached the clearing where Clarence's house stood.

He cursed under his breath. Whatever had possessed him the last time he had traveled this path had been exorcised by rage this night. Something had made Thea leave her bed again—the sound of drums... or singing, perhaps—and Papa Jacques was at the bottom of it. If somebody didn't get him off the island soon, the whole place would go voodoo, and then where would they be?

He saw a dark figure step from out of the bush and block the path. Alert, ready for anything, he stopped. "Who's that?"

"Clarence, mon." The tall, slim black hung his head. "Papa Jacques, he say we mus' get out. Ah don' pay his pittance. We be livin' in the bush. Deenie, chile, come here."

In the moonlight Mike saw Deenie join her father. She was staring at the ground.

"Tell Mr. Brody, Deenie. Tell him what Papa Jacques make you do."

Deenie looked up. Her eyes were white with fear. "He make me take her bucket. From our castle on the beach!"

"Why?" He grabbed the little girl's arms. Compared to Thea's, they felt like sticks. "Deenie, is Thea in there?"

"No, suh." Deenie gulped. "Jes' her bucket. I don't know where Thea is."

"Clarence, throw out that son of a bitch! Or I'll go in and do it myself!"

"Mon, I cain't! He is very angry now. Louisa, she afeared to go in there, and she half-mambo herself."