Everyone now fed and comfortable, we settled in for the evening. I had some correspondence to catch up on—I still write letters—and Parker gave his attention to drawing up the list of materials he needed to get started with his work. Tybee stayed curled in the corner of the settee but when either Parker or I moved around a bit, or made a sound, he would open a sleepy eye and look about the cabin before drifting off again.

But something was tugging on my mind, and there was a question I had to ask. I put down my pen and looked in Parker’s direction. He must have felt my attention upon him. He looked up and caught my eye.

“Parker. Twice now you’ve delivered a message from Miss Cyriah, and neither time did you demonstrate the slightest interest in the meaning of those words. Most people would have had to ask what it was all about, but you didn’t. Why not?”

Parker sat still. He shifted his gaze to the bulkhead behind me and after a few seconds back to my face again.

“I never intended landing on Daufuskie. It just so happened that my worm-eaten boat sank from beneath me out at the mouth of the Savannah channel. I climbed into my dingy as the boat went under the waves, and let the tide and wind wash me ashore on Daufuskie. I was a derelict in a strange place, a man with no money, no job or family, and no hope.

“It was early spring, and for a while I lived on the beach under the upturned dingy, wondering what I was to do. And then one day, early in the morning, I decided on a course of action. I would take the long swim. I would just wade out into the Atlantic and start swimming for Africa. By the time I became exhausted I would be too far out for anyone to notice. I am told that drowning is an easy death. Then, just as I stood up to walk into the water a boy showed up—a deaf-mute boy—Ronnie. Do you know him?”

I shook my head in the negative.

Parker continued, “He and his family live near the Chambers place. Anyway, this boy shows up. He takes my hand, and by various signs, indicates that I am to come with him—that I have been summoned. He then led me to the Chambers house where I found Miss Cyriah sitting on the porch—waiting for me, she tells me.”

Parker looked away again, and cleared his throat before continuing his tale.