^ 
 
 ^^r 
 
 --■^^jyi^- 
 
 Jack London 
 
?5 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT 
 FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY 
 
 HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PS 3523.058A7 
 
 Adventure, 
 
 3 1924 021 763 473 
 
gg \4 Cornell University 
 f Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021763473 
 
ADVENTURE 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
 SAH FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
ADVENTURE 
 
 BY 
 
 JACK LONDON 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE CALL OF THE WILD," " BURNING DAYLIGHT," 
 Etc., £TC. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1911 
 
 Ail rights reserved 
 
 E. M. 
 

 COPVKIGHT, igio, 
 
 By street and SMITH. 
 
 Copyright, xgiz, 
 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published March, igxx. 
 
 J. B. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
" We are those fools who could not rest 
 In the dull earth we left behind, 
 But burned with passion for the West 
 
 And drank strange frenzy from its wind. 
 The world where wise men live at ease 
 
 Fades from our unregretful eyes, 
 And blind across uncharted seas 
 We stagger on our enterprise." 
 
 — The Ship of Fools. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTBK 
 I, 
 
 Something to be Done 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 II. 
 
 Something is Done 
 
 
 IS 
 
 III. 
 
 The Jessie .... 
 
 
 28 
 
 IV. 
 
 Joan Lackland .... 
 
 
 43 
 
 V. 
 
 She would a Planter Be 
 
 
 55 
 
 VI. 
 
 Tempest ..... 
 
 
 77 
 
 VII. 
 
 A Hard-bitten Gang . 
 
 
 • 87 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Local Color .... 
 
 
 . 107 
 
 IX. 
 
 As between a Man and a Woman 
 
 
 118 
 
 X. 
 
 A Message from Boucher 
 
 
 iz8 
 
 XI. 
 
 The Port Adams Crowd 
 
 
 144 
 
 XII. 
 
 Mr. Morgan and Mr. Raff 
 
 
 157 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The Logic of Youth . 
 
 
 169 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The Martha . . . 
 
 
 183 
 
 XV. 
 
 A Matter of Training 
 
 
 198 
 
 XVI. 
 
 The Girl who had not grown Up 
 
 
 210 
 
 XVII. 
 
 "Your" Miss Lackland 
 
 
 231 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Making the Books come True 
 
 
 246 
 
 XIX. 
 
 The Lost Toy 
 
 
 268 
 
 XX. 
 
 A Man-talk .... 
 
 
 z8i 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Contraband ..... 
 
 
 292 
 
 XXII. 
 
 GOGOOMY FINISHES ALONG KwAQUE ALTOGETHER 
 
 303 
 
 
 vii 
 
 
 
viii 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 A Message from the Bush 
 
 . 321 
 
 XXIV, 
 
 In the Bush .... 
 
 • 333 
 
 XXV. 
 
 The Head-hunters . 
 
 • 348 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Burning Daylight 
 
 • 360 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 Modern Duelling 
 
 . 382 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Capitulation .... 
 
 • 393 
 
ADVENTURE 
 
ADVENTURE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SOMETHING TO BE DONE 
 
 HE was a very sick white man. He rode 
 pick-a-back on a woolly-headed black- 
 skinned savage, the lobes of whose ears 
 had been pierced and stretched until one had 
 torn out, while the other carried a circular block 
 of carved wood three inches in diameter. The 
 torn ear had been pierced again, but this time 
 not so ambitiously, for the whole accommodated 
 no more than a short clay-pipe. The man-horse 
 was greasy and dirty and naked save for an ex- 
 ceedingly narrow and dirty loin-cloth ; but the 
 white man clung to him closely and desperately. 
 At times, from weakness, his head drooped and 
 rested on the woolly pate. At other times he 
 lifted his head and stared with swimming eyes 
 
2 ADVENTURE 
 
 at the cocoanut palms that reeled and swung In 
 the shimmering heat. He was clad in a thiri 
 undershirt and a strip of cotton cloth that 
 wrapped about his waist and descended to his 
 knees. , On his head was a battered Stetson, 
 known to the trade as a Baden-Powell. About 
 his middle was strapped a belt, which carried a 
 large-calibered automatic pistol and several 
 spare clips, loaded and ready for quick work. 
 
 The rear was brought up by a black boy of 
 fourteen or fifteen, who carried medicine bottles, 
 a pail of hot water, and various other hospital 
 appurtenances. They passed out of the com- 
 pound through a small wicker gate, and went on 
 under the blazing sun, winding about among 
 new-planted cocoanuts that threw no shade. 
 There was not a breath of wind, and the super- 
 heated, stagnant air was heavy with pestilence. 
 From the direction they were going arose a wild 
 clamor, as of lost souls wailing and of men in 
 torment. A long, low shed showed ahead, grass- 
 walled and grass-thatched, and it was from here 
 that the noise, proceeded. There were shrieks 
 and screams, some unmistakably of grief, others 
 
ADVENTURE 3 
 
 unmistakably of unendurable pain. As the 
 white man drew closer he could hear a low and 
 continuous moaning and groaning. He shud- 
 dered at the thought of entering, and for a 
 moment was quite certain that he was going to 
 faint. For that most dreaded of Solomon 
 Island scourges, dysentery, had struck Berande 
 Plantation, and he was all alone to cope with it. 
 Also, he was afflicted himself. 
 
 By stooping close, still on man-back, he man- 
 aged to pass through the low doorway. He 
 took a small bottle from his follower and sniffed 
 strong ammonia to clear his senses for the ordeal. 
 Then he shouted "Shut up!" and the clamor 
 stilled. A raised platform of forest slabs, six 
 feet wide, with a slight pitch, extended the full 
 length of the shed. Alongside of it was a yard- 
 wide runway. Stretched on the platform, 
 side by side and crowded close, lay a score of 
 blacks. That they were low in the order of 
 human life was apparent at a glance. They 
 were man-eaters. Their faces were asymmetri- 
 cal, bestial ; their bodies were ugly and apelike. 
 They wore nose-rings of clam-shell and turtle- 
 
4 ADVENTURE 
 
 shell, and from the ends of their noses, which were 
 also pierced, projected horns of beads strung on 
 stiff wire. Their ears were pierced and distended 
 to accommodate wooden plugs and sticks, pipes, 
 and all manner of barbaric ornaments. Their 
 faces and bodies were tattooed or scarred in hide- 
 ous designs. In their sickness they wore no cloth- 
 ing, not even loin-clouts, though they retained 
 their shell armlets, their bead necklaces, and 
 their leather belts, between which and the skin 
 were thrust naked knives. The bodies of many 
 were covered with horrible sores. Swarms of flies 
 rose and settled, or flew back and forth in clouds. 
 ' The white man went down the line, dosing 
 each man with medicine. To some he gave 
 chlorodyne. He was forced to concentrate 
 with all his will in order to remember which of 
 them could stand ipecacuanha and which of 
 them were constitutionally unable to retain that 
 powerful drug. One who lay dead he ordered to 
 be carried out. He spoke in the sharp, peremp- 
 tory manner of a man who would take no non- 
 sense, and the well men who obeyed his orders 
 scowled malignantly. One muttered deep in 
 
ADVENTURE 5 
 
 his chest as he took the corpse by the feet. The 
 white man exploded in speech and action. It 
 cost him a painful effort, but his arm shot out, 
 landing a back-hand blow on the black's mouth. 
 
 "What name you, Angara ?" he shouted. 
 "What for talk 'long you, eh ? I knock seven 
 bells out of you, too much, quick !" 
 
 With the automatic swiftness of a wild animal 
 the black gathered himself to spring. The anger 
 of a wild animal was in his eyes ; but he saw the 
 white man's hand dropping to the pistol in his 
 belt. The spring was never made. The tensed 
 body relaxed, and the black, stooping over the 
 corpse, helped carry it out. This time there 
 was no muttering. 
 
 "Swine !" the white man gritted out through 
 his teeth at the whole breed of Solomon Islanders. 
 
 He was very sick, this white man, as sick as 
 the black men who lay helpless about him and 
 whom he attended. He never knew, each time 
 he entered the festering shambles, whether or not 
 he would be able to complete the round. But 
 he did know, in large degree of certainty, that 
 if he ever fainted there in the midst of the blacks, 
 
6 ADVENTURE 
 
 those who were able would be at his throat like 
 ravening wolves. 
 
 Part way down the line a man was dying. 
 He gave orders for his removal as soon as he 
 had breathed his last. A black stuck his head 
 inside the shed door, saying : 
 
 "Four fella sick too much." 
 
 Fresh cases, still able to walk, they clustered 
 about the spokesman. The white man singled 
 out the weakest and put him in the place just 
 vacated by the corpse. Also, he indicated the 
 next weakest, telling him to wait for a place 
 until the next man died. Then, ordering one 
 of the well men to take a squad from the field- 
 force and build a lean-to addition to the hospital, 
 he continued along the runway, administering 
 medicine and cracking jokes in beche-de-mer Eng- 
 lish to cheer the sufferers. Now and again, 
 from the far end, a weird wail was raised. 
 When he arrived there he found the noise was 
 emitted by a boy who was not sick. The white 
 man's wrath was immediate. 
 
 "What name you sing out alia time ?" he de- 
 manded. 
 
ADVENTURE 7 
 
 "Him fella my brother belong me," was the 
 answer. "Him fella die too much." 
 
 "You sing out, him fella brother belong you 
 die too much," the white man went on in 
 threatening tones. "I cross too much along 
 you. What name you sing out, eh ? You 
 fathead make um brother belong you die close 
 up too much. You fella finish sing out, savvee ? 
 You fella no finish sing out I make finish damn 
 quick." 
 
 He threatened the waller with his fist, and the 
 black cowered down, glaring at him with sullen 
 eyes. 
 
 "Sing out no good little bit," the white man 
 went on, more gently. "You no sing out. 
 You chase um fella fly. Too much strong fella 
 fly. You catch water, washee brother belong 
 you, washee plenty too much, bime bye brother 
 belong you all right." 
 
 " Jump J " he shouted fiercely at the end, his will 
 penetrating the low intelligence of the black with 
 dynamic force that rnade him jump to the task 
 of brushing the loathsome swarms of flies away. 
 
 Again he rode out into the reeking heat. He 
 
8 ADVENTURE 
 
 clutched the black's neck tightly and drew a 
 long breath ; but the dead air seemed to shrivel 
 his lungs, and he dropped his head and dozed 
 till the house was reached. Every effort of 
 will was torture, yet he was called upon con- 
 tinually to make efforts of will. He gave the 
 black he had ridden a nip of trade gin. Via- 
 buri, the house-boy, brought him corrosive sub- 
 limate and water, and he took a thorough 
 antiseptic wash. He dosed himself with chlo- 
 rodyne, took his own pulse, smoked a ther- 
 mometer, and lay back on the couch with a 
 suppressed groan. It was mid-afternoon, and 
 he had completed his third round that day. 
 He called the house-boy. 
 
 "Take um big fella look along Jessie" he 
 commanded. 
 
 The boy carried the long telescope out on 
 the veranda and searched the sea. ; 
 
 "One fella schooner long way little bit," he 
 announced. "One fella JessieP 
 
 The white man gave a little gasp of delight. 
 
 "You make um Jessie, five sticks tobacco 
 along you," he said. 
 
ADVENTURE 9 
 
 There was silence for a time, during which 
 he waited with eager impatience. 
 
 "Maybe Jessie, maybe other fella schooner," 
 came the faltering admission. 
 
 The man wormed to the edge of the couch 
 and slipped ofF to the floor on his knees. By 
 means of a chair he drew himself to his feet. 
 Still clinging to the chair, supporting most 
 of his weight on it, he shoved it to the door 
 and out upon the veranda. The sweat from 
 the exertion streamed down his face and showed 
 through the undershirt across his shoulders. 
 He managed to get into the chair, where he 
 panted in a state of collapse. In a few minutes 
 he roused himself. The boy held the end of 
 the telescope against one of the veranda scant- 
 lings, while the man gazed through it at the 
 sea. At last he picked up the white sails of 
 the schooner and studied them. 
 
 "No Jessie," he said very quietly. "That's 
 the Malakula." 
 
 He changed his seat for a steamer reclining- 
 chair. Three hundred feet away the sea broke 
 in a small surf upon the beach. To the left he 
 
lo ADVENTURE 
 
 could see the white line of breakers that marked 
 the bar of the Balesuna River and, beyond, 
 the rugged .outline of Savo Island. Directly 
 before him, across the twelve-mile channel, lay 
 Florida Island, and, farther to the right, dim 
 in the distance, he could make out portions of 
 Malaita, the savage island, the abode of mur- 
 der and robbery, and man-eating, the place 
 from which his own two hundred plantation 
 hands had been recruited. Between him and 
 the beach was the cane-grass fence of the com- 
 pound. The gate was ajar, and he sent the 
 house-boy to close it. Within the fence grew 
 a number of lofty cocoanut palms. On either 
 side the path that led to the gate stood two 
 tall flagstaff s. They were reared on artificial 
 mounds of earth that were ten feet high. The 
 base of each staff was surrounded by short 
 posts, painted white and ^connected by heavy 
 chains. The staffs themselves were like ships' 
 masts, with topmasts spliced on in true nau- 
 tical fashion, with shrouds, ratlines, gaffs, and 
 flag-halyards. From the gaff of one, two gay 
 flags hung limply, one a checker-board of blue 
 
ADVENTURE 1 1 
 
 and white squares, the other a white pennant 
 centred with a red disk. It was the interna- 
 tional code signal of distress. 
 
 On the far corner of the compound fence a 
 hawk brooded. The man watched it and knew 
 that it was sick. He wondered idly if it felt 
 as bad as he felt, and was feebly amused at 
 the thought of kinship that somehow pene- 
 trated his fancy. He roused himself to order 
 the great bell to be rung as a signal for the 
 plantation hands to cease work and go to their 
 barracks. Then he mounted his man-horse 
 and made the last round of the day. 
 
 In the hospital were two new cases. To 
 these he gave castor-oil. He congratulated 
 himself. It had been an easy day. Only three 
 had died. He inspected the copra-drying that 
 had been going on, and went through the bar- 
 racks to see if there were any sick lying hidden 
 and defying his rule of segregation. Returned 
 to the house, he received the reports of the 
 boss-boys and gave instructions for next day's 
 work. The boats' crew boss also he had in, to 
 give assurance, as was the custom nightly, that 
 
12 ADVENTURE 
 
 the whale-boats were hauled up and padlocked. 
 This was a most necessary precaution, for the 
 blacks were in a funk, and a whale-boat left 
 lying on the beach in the evening meant a loss 
 of twenty blacks by morning. Since the blacks 
 were worth thirty dollars apiece, or less, accord- 
 ing to how much of their time had been worked 
 out, Berande Plantation could ill afford the 
 loss. .Besides, whale-boats were not cheap in 
 the Solomons, and, also, the deaths were daily 
 reducing the working capital. Seven blacks 
 had fled into the bush the week before, and four 
 had dragged themselves back, helpless froni fever, 
 with the report that two more had been killed 
 and kai-kai'd^ by the hospitable bushmen. 
 The seventh man was still at large and was said 
 to be working along the coast on the lookout to 
 steal a canoe and get away to his own island. 
 Viaburi brought two lighted lanterns to the 
 white man for inspection. He glanced at them 
 and saw that they were burning brightly with 
 clear, broad flames, and nodded his head. One 
 was hoisted up to the gaff of the flagstaff, and 
 
 * Eaten. 
 
ADVENTURE 13 
 
 the other was placed on the wide veranda. They 
 were the leading lights to the Berande anchor- 
 age, and every night in the year they were so 
 inspected and hung out. 
 
 He rolled back on his couch with a sigh of 
 relief. The day's work was done. A rifle lay 
 on the couch beside him. His revolver was 
 within reach of his hand. An hour passed, 
 during which he did not move. He lay in a 
 state of half-slumber, half-coma. He became 
 suddenly alert. A creak on the back veranda 
 was the cause. The room was L-shaped; the 
 corner in which stood his couch was dim, but 
 the hanging lamp in the main part of the room, 
 over the billiard-table and just around the cor- 
 ner so that it did not shine on him, was burn- 
 ing brightly. Likewise the verandas were well 
 lighted. He waited without movement. The 
 creaks were repeated, and he knew several men 
 lurked outside. 
 
 "What name?" he cried sharply. 
 
 The house, raised a dozen feet above the 
 ground, shook on its pile-foundations to the rush 
 of retreating footsteps. 
 
14 ADVENTURE 
 
 "They're getting bold," he muttered. 
 "Something will have to be done." 
 
 The full moon rose over Malaita and shone 
 down on Berande. Nothing stirred in the 
 windless air. From the hospital still proceeded 
 the moaning of the sick. In the grass-thatched 
 barracks nearly two hundred woolly-headed 
 man-eaters slept off the weariness of the day's 
 toil, though several lifted their heads to listen 
 to the curses of one who cursed the white man, 
 who never slept. On the four verandas of the 
 house, the lanterns burned. Inside, between 
 rifle and revolver, the man himself moaned and 
 tossed in intervals of troubled sleep. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 SOMETHING IS DONE 
 
 IN the morning David Sheldon decided that 
 he was worse. That he was appreciably 
 weaker there was no doubt, and there 
 were other symptoms that were unfavorable. 
 He began his rounds looking for trouble. He 
 wanted trouble. In full health, the strained 
 situation would have been serious enough ; but 
 as it was, himself growing helpless, something 
 had to be done. The blacks were getting more 
 sullen and defiant, and the appearance of the 
 men the previous night on his veranda — one of 
 the gravest of offences on Berande — was 
 ominous. Sooner or later they would get him, 
 if he did not get them first, if he did not once 
 again sear on their dark souls the flaming mas- 
 tery of the white man. 
 
 He returned to the house disappointed. No 
 opportunity had presented itself of making an 
 
 IS 
 
i6 ADVENTURE 
 
 example of insolence or insubordination — such 
 as had occurred on every other day since the 
 sickness smote Berande. The fact that none 
 had offended was in itself suspicious. They 
 were growing crafty. He regretted that he had 
 not waited the night before until the prowlers 
 had entered. Then he might have shot one or 
 two and given the rest a new lesson, writ in red, 
 for them to con. It was one man against two 
 hundred, and he was horribly afraid of his sick- 
 ness overpowering him and leaving, him at their 
 mercy. He saw visions of the blacks taking 
 ' charge of the plantation, looting the store, burn- 
 ing the buildings, and escaping to Malaita. 
 Also, one grewsome vision he caught of his own 
 head, sun-dried and smoke-cured, ornamenting 
 the canoe house of a cannibal village. Either 
 the Jessie would have to arrive, or he would have 
 to do something. 
 
 The bell had hardly rung, sending the laborers 
 into the fields, when Sheldon had a visitor. He 
 had had the couch ta:ken out on the veranda, 
 and he was lying on it when the canoes paddled 
 in and hauled out on the beach. Forty men, 
 
ADVENTURE 17 
 
 armed with spears, bows and arrows, and war- 
 clubs, gathered outside the gate of the com- 
 pound, but only one entered. They knew the 
 law of Berande, as every native knew the law 
 of every white man's compound in all the thou- 
 sand miles of the far-flung Solomons. The one 
 man who came up the path Sheldon recognized 
 as Seelee, the chief of Balesuna village. The 
 savage did not mount the steps, but stood be- 
 neath and talked to the white lord above. 
 
 Seelee was more intelligent than the average 
 of his kind, but his intelligence only empha- 
 sized the lowness of that kind. His eyes, close 
 together and sm-all, advertised cruelty and 
 craftiness. A gee-string and a cartridge-belt 
 were all the clothes he wore. The carved pearl- 
 shell ornament that hung from nose to chin and 
 impeded speech was purely ornamental, as were 
 the holes in his ears mere utilities for carrying 
 pipe and tobacco. His broken-fanged teeth 
 were stained black by betel-nut, the juice of 
 which he spat on the ground. 
 
 As he talked, or listened, he made grimaces like 
 a monkey. He said yes by dropping his eyelids 
 
i8 ADVENTURE 
 
 and thrusting his chin forward. He spoke 
 with childish arrogance strangely at variance 
 with the subservient position he occupied beneath 
 the veranda. He, with his many followers, was 
 lord and master of Balesuna village. But the 
 white man, without followers, was lord and master 
 of Berande — ay, and on occasion, single-handed, 
 had made himself lord and master of Balesuna 
 village as well. Seelee did not like to remember 
 that episode. It had occurred in the course of 
 learning the nature of white men and of learning 
 to abominate them. He had once been guilty of 
 sheltering three runaways from Berande. They 
 had given him all they possessed in return for the 
 shelter and for promised aid in getting away to 
 Malaita. This had given him a glimpse of a 
 profitable future, in which his village would serve 
 as the one depot on the underground railway 
 between Berande and Malaita. 
 
 Unfortunately, he was ignorant of the ways of 
 white men. This particular white man educated 
 him by arriving at his grass house in the gray of 
 dawn. In the first moment he had felt amused. 
 He was so perfectly safe in the midst of his village. 
 
ADVENTURE 19 
 
 But the next moment, and before he could cry 
 out, a pair of handcuffs on the white man's 
 knuckles had landed on his mouth, knocking the 
 cry of alarm back down his throat. Also, the 
 white man's other fist had caught him under the 
 ear and left him without further interest in what 
 was happening. When he came to, he found him- 
 self in the white man's whale-boat on the way to 
 Berande. At Berande he had been treated as 
 one of no consequence, with handcuffs on hands 
 and feet, to say nothing of chains. When his 
 tribe had returned the three runaways, he was 
 given his freedom. And finally, the terrible 
 white man had fined him and Balesuna village 
 ten thousand cocoanuts. After that he had 
 sheltered no more run-away Malaita men. In- 
 stead, he had gone into the business of catching 
 them. It was safer. Besides, he was paid one 
 case of tobacco per head. But if he ever got a 
 chance at that white man, if he ever caught him 
 sick or stood at his back when he stumbled and 
 fell on a bush trail — well, there would be a head 
 that would fetch a price in Malaita. 
 
 Sheldon was pleased with what Seelee told 
 
20 ADVENTURE 
 
 him. The seventh man of the last batch of run- 
 aways had been caught and was even then at the 
 gate. He was brought in, heavy-featured and 
 defiant, his arms bound with cocoanut sennit, 
 the dry blood still on his body from the struggle 
 with his captors. 
 
 "Me savvee you good fella, Seelee," Sheldon 
 said, as the chief gulped down a quarter-tumbler 
 of raw trade gin. "Fella boy belong me you 
 catch short time little bit. This fella boy 
 strong fella too much. I give you fella one case 
 tobacco — my word, one case tobacco. Then, 
 you good fella along me, I give you three fathom 
 calico, one fella knife big fella too much." 
 
 The tobacco and trade goods were brought 
 from the store-room by two house-boys and 
 turned over to the chief of Balesuna village, 
 who accepted the additional reward with a non- 
 committal grunt and went away down the path 
 to his canoes. Under Sheldon's directions, the 
 house-boys handcuffed the prisoner, by hands 
 and feet, around one of the pile supports of the 
 house. At eleven o'clock, when the laborers 
 came in from the field, Sheldon had them as- 
 
ADVENTURE 21 
 
 sembled in the compound before the veranda. 
 Every able man was there, including those who 
 were helping about the hospital. Even the 
 women and the several pickaninnies of the 
 plantation were lined up with the rest, two deep 
 — a horde of naked savages a trifle under two 
 hundred strong. In addition to their orna- 
 ments of bead and shell and bone, their pierced 
 ears and nostrils were burdened with safety-pins, 
 wire nails, metal hair-pins, rusty iron handles of 
 cooking utensils, and the patent keys for opening 
 corned beef tins. Some wore penknives clasped 
 on their kinky locks for safety. On the chest 
 of one a china door-knob was suspended, on the 
 chest of another the brass wheel of an alarm 
 clock. 
 
 Facing them, clinging to the railing of the ve- 
 randa for support, stood the sick white man. 
 Any one of them could have knocked him over 
 with the blow of a little finger. Despite his fire- 
 arms, the gang could have rushed him and de- 
 livered that blow, when his head and the 
 plantation would have been theirs. Hatred 
 and murder and lust for revenge they possessed 
 
22 ADVENTURE 
 
 to overflowing. But one thing they lacked, the 
 thing that he possessed, — the flame of mastery 
 that would not quench, that burned fiercely as 
 ever in the disease-wasted body, and that was 
 ever ready to flare forth and scorch and singe 
 them with its ire. 
 
 "Narada ! Billy !" Sheldon called sharply. ' 
 
 Two men slunk unwillingly forward and waited. 
 
 Sheldon gave the keys of the handcuffs to a 
 house-boy, who went under the house and loosed 
 the prisoner. 
 
 "You fella Narada, you fella Billy, take um 
 this fella boy along tree and make fast, hands 
 high up," was Sheldon's command. 
 
 While this was being done, slowly, amidst 
 mutterings and restlessness on the part of the on- 
 lookers, one of the house-boys fetched a heavy- 
 handled,* heavy-lashed whip. Sheldon began a 
 speech. 
 
 "This fella Arunga, me cross along him too 
 much. I no steal this fella Arunga. I no gam- 
 mon. I say, 'All right, you come along me 
 Berande, work three fella year.' He say, 'All 
 right, me come along you work three fella 
 
ADVENTURE 23 
 
 year.' He come. He catch plenty good fella 
 kai-kai,^ plenty good fella money. What name 
 he run away ? Me too much cross along him. 
 I knock what name outa him fella. I pay 
 Seelee, big fella master along Balesuna, one case 
 tobacco catch that fella Arunga. All right. 
 Arunga pay that fella case tobacco. Six pounds 
 that fella Arunga pay. AUe same one year more 
 that fella Arunga work Bei;ande. All right. 
 Now he catch ten fella whip three times. You 
 fella Billy catch whip, give that fella Arunga ten 
 fella three times. All fella boys look see, all 
 fella Marys ^ look see ; bime bye, they like run 
 away they think strong fella too much, no run 
 away. Billy, strong fella too much ten fella 
 three times." 
 
 The house-boy extended the whip to him, but 
 Billy did not take it. Sheldon waited quietly. 
 The eyes of all the cannibals were fixed upon him 
 in doubt and fear and eagerness. It was the 
 moment of test, whereby the lone white man 
 was to live or be lost. 
 
 "Ten fella three times, Billy," Sheldon said 
 * Food. * Mary — beche-de-mer, English for woman. 
 
24 ADVENTURE 
 
 encouragingly, though there was a certain me- 
 tallic rasp in his voice. 
 
 Billy scowled, looked up and looked down, 
 but did not move. 
 
 "Billy!" 
 
 Sheldon's voice exploded like a pistol shot. 
 The savage startled physically. Grins over- 
 spread the grotesque features of the audience, 
 and there was a sound of tittering. 
 
 "S'pose you like too much lash that fella 
 Arunga, you take him fella Tulagi," Billy said. 
 "One fella government agent make plenty lash. 
 That um fella law. Me savvee um fella law." 
 
 It was the law, and Sheldon knew it. But 
 he wanted to live this day and the next day 
 and not to die waiting for the law to operate 
 the next week or the week after. 
 
 "Too much talk along you !" he cried 
 angrily. "What name eh ? What name ?" 
 
 "Me sawee law," the savage repeated stub- 
 bornly. 
 
 "Astoa !" 
 
 Another man stepped forward in almost a 
 sprightly way and glanced insolently up. Shel- 
 
ADVENTURE . 25 
 
 don was selecting the worst characters for the 
 lesson. 
 
 "You fella Astoa, you fella Narada, tie up 
 that fella Billy alongside other fella same fella 
 way. 
 
 "Strong fella tie," he cautioned thenj. 
 
 "You fella Astoa take that fella whip. 
 Plenty strong big fella too much ten fella three 
 times. Savvee!" 
 
 "No," Astoa grunted. 
 
 Sheldon picked up the rifle that had leaned 
 against the rail, and cocked it. 
 
 "I know you, Astoa," he said calmly. "You 
 work along Queensland six years." 
 
 " Me fella missionary," the black interrupted 
 with deliberate insolence. 
 
 "Queensland you stop jail one fella year. 
 White fella master damn fool no hang you. 
 You too much ■ bad fella. Queensland you 
 stop jail six months two fella time. Two fella 
 time you steal. All right, you missionary. 
 You sawee one fella prayer .?" 
 
 "Yes, me sawee pi;ayer," was the reply. 
 
 "All right, then you pray now, short time 
 
26 ADVENTURE 
 
 little bit. You say one fella prayer damn 
 quick, then me kill you." 
 
 Sheldon held the rifle on him and waited. 
 The black glanced around at his fellows, but 
 none moved to aid him. They were intent 
 upon the coming spectacle, staring fascinated 
 at the white man with death in his hands who 
 stood alone on the great veranda. Sheldon had 
 won, and he knew it. Astoa changed his weight 
 irresolutely from one foot to the other. He 
 looked at the white man, and saw his eyes 
 gleaming level along the sights. 
 
 "Astoa," Sheldon said, seizing the psycho- 
 logical moment, "I count three fella time. 
 Then I shoot you fella dead, good by, all finish 
 you." 
 
 And Sheldon knew that when he had counted 
 three he would drop him in his tracks. The 
 black knew it, too. That was why Sheldon 
 did not have to do it, for when he had counted 
 one, Astoa reached out his hand and took the 
 whip. And right well Astoa laid on the whip, 
 angered at his fellows for not supporting him, 
 and venting his anger with every stroke. From 
 
ADVENTURE 27 
 
 the veranda, Sheldon egged him on to strike 
 with strength, till the two triced savages 
 screamed and howled while the blood oozed 
 down their backs. The lesson was being well- 
 written in red. 
 
 When the last of the gang, including the two 
 howling culprits, had passed out through the 
 compound gate, Sheldon sank down half-fainting 
 on his couch. 
 
 "You're a sick man," he groaned. "A sick 
 man." 
 
 "But you can sleep at ease to-night," he 
 added, half an hour later. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE JESSIE 
 
 TWO days passed, and Sheldon felt that 
 he could not grow any weaker and live, 
 much less make his four daily rounds of 
 the hospital. The deaths were averaging four a 
 day, and there were more new cases than recov- 
 eries. The blacks were in a funk. Each one, 
 when taken sick, seemed to make every effort to 
 die. Once down on their backs they lacked the 
 grit to make a struggle. They believed they were 
 going to die, and they did their best to vindicate 
 that belief. Even those that were well were sure 
 that it was only a matter of days when the sick- 
 ness would catch them and carry them off. 
 And yet, -believing this with . absolute convic- 
 tion, they somehow lacked the nerve to rush the 
 frail wraith of a man with the white skin and 
 escape from the charnel house by the whale- 
 boats. They chose the lingering death they 
 
 28 
 
ADVENTURE 29 
 
 were sure awaited them, rather than the imme- 
 diate death they were very sure would pounce 
 upon them if they went up against the master. 
 That he never slept, they knew. That he could 
 not be conjured to death, they were equally sure 
 — they had tried it. And even the sickness 
 that was sweeping them off could not kill him. 
 
 With the whipping in the compound, disci- 
 pline had improved. They cringed under the 
 iron hand of the white man. They gave their 
 scowls or malignant looks with averted faces or 
 when his back was turned. They saved their 
 mutterings for the barracks at night where he 
 could not hear. And there were no more run- 
 aways and no more night prowlers on the 
 veranda. 
 
 Dawn of the third day after the whipping 
 brought the Jessie's white sails in sight. Eight 
 miles away, it was not till two in the afternoon 
 that the light air-fans enabled her to drop anchor 
 a quarter of a mile off the shore. The sight of 
 her gave Sheldon fresh courage, and the tedious 
 hours of waiting did not irk him. He gave his 
 orders to the boss-boys and made his regular 
 
30 ADVENTURE 
 
 trips to the hospital. Nothing mattered now. 
 His troubles were at an end. He could lie down 
 and take care of himself and proceed to get well. 
 The Jessie had arrived. His partner was on 
 board, vigorous and hearty from six weeks 
 recruiting on Malaita. He could take charge 
 now, and all would be well with Berande. 
 
 Sheldon lay in the steamer chair and watched 
 the Jessie's whale-boat pull in for the beach. 
 He wondered why only three sweeps were pulling, 
 and he wondered still more when, beached, there 
 was so much delay in getting out of the boat. 
 Then he understood. The three blacks who 
 had been pulling started up the beach with a 
 stretcher on their shoulders. A white man, 
 whom he recognized as the Jessie's captain, 
 walked in front and opened the gate, then 
 dropped behind to close it. Sheldon knew that 
 it was Hughie Drummond who lay in the 
 stretcher, and a mist came before his eyes. He 
 felt an overwhelming desire to die. The disap- 
 pointment was too great. In his own state of 
 terrible weakness he felt that it was impossible 
 to go on with his task of holding Berande Plan- 
 
ADVENTURE 31 
 
 tation tight gripped in his fist. Then the will 
 of him flamed up again, and he directed the 
 blacks to lay the stretcher beside him on the 
 floor. Hughie Drummond, whom he had last 
 seen in health, was an emaciated skeleton. 
 His closed eyes were deep sunken. The shriv- 
 elled lips had fallen away from the teeth, and 
 the cheek-bones seemed bursting through the 
 skin. Sheldon sent a house-boy for his ther- 
 mometer and glanced questioningly at the 
 captain. 
 
 "Black-water fever," the captain said. "He's 
 been like this for six days, unconscious. And 
 we've got dysentery on board. What's the 
 matter with you .>"' 
 
 "I'm burying four a day," Sheldon answered, 
 as he bent over from the steamer chair and 
 inserted the thermometer under his partner's 
 tongue. 
 
 Captain Oleson swore blasphemously and 
 sent a house-boy to bring whiskey and soda. 
 Sheldon glanced at the thermometer. 
 
 "One hundred and seven," he said. "Poor 
 Hughie." 
 
32 ADVENTURE 
 
 Captain Oleson offered him some whiskey. 
 
 "Couldn't think of it — 'perforation, you 
 know," Sheldon said. 
 
 He sent for a boss-boy and ordered a grave to 
 be dug; also, some of the packing-cases to be 
 knocked together into a coffin. The blacks 
 did not get coffins. They were buried as they 
 died, being carted on a sheet of galvanized iron, 
 in their nakedness, from the hospital to the hole 
 in the ground. Having given the orders, Shel- 
 don lay back in his chair with closed eyes. 
 
 "It's ben fair hell, sir," Captain Oleson 
 began, then broke off to help himself to more 
 whiskey. "It's ben fair hell, Mr. Sheldon, I 
 tell you. Contrary winds and calms. We've 
 ben driftin' all about the shop for ten days. 
 There's ten thousand sharks following us for 
 the tucker we've ben throwin' over to them. 
 They was snappin' at the oars when we started 
 to come ashore. I wisht to God a nor'wester'd 
 come along an' blow the Solomons clean to hell. 
 
 "We got it from the water — water from 
 Owga creek. Filled my casks with it. How 
 was we to know ? I've filled there before an' 
 
ADVENTURE 33 
 
 it was all right. We had siixty recruits — full 
 up, and my crew of fifteen. We've ben buryin' 
 them day an' night. The beggars won't live, 
 damn them ! They die out of spite. Only 
 three of my crew left on its legs. Five more 
 down. Seven dead. Oh, hell ! What's the 
 good of talkin' ?" 
 
 "How many recruits left?" Sheldon asked. 
 
 "Lost half. Thirty left. Twenty down, and 
 ten tottering around." 
 
 Sheldon sighed, 
 
 "That means another addition to the hospi- 
 tal. We've got to get them ashore somehow. 
 Viaburi ! Hey, you, Viaburi, ring big fella 
 bell strong fella too much." 
 
 The hands, called in from the fields at that 
 unwonted hour, were split into detachments. 
 Some were sent into the woods to cut timber for 
 house beams, others to cutting cane grass for 
 thatching, and forty of them lifted a whale-boat 
 above their heads and carried it down to the 
 sea, Sheldon had gritted his teeth, pulled his 
 collapsing soul together, and taken Berande 
 Plantation into his fist once more. 
 
34 ADVENTURE 
 
 "Have you seen the barometer?" Captain 
 Oleson asked, pausing at the bottom of the 
 steps on his way to oversee the disembarkation 
 of the sick. 
 
 "No," Sheldon answered. "Is it down?" 
 
 "It's going down." 
 
 "Then you'd better sleep aboard to-night," 
 was Sheldon's judgment. "Never mind the 
 funeral. I'll see to poor Hughie." 
 
 "A nigger was kicking the bucket when I 
 dropped anchor." 
 
 The captain made the statement as a simple 
 fact, but obviously waited for a suggestion. 
 The other felt a sudden wave of irritation rush 
 through him. 
 
 "Dump him over," he cried. "Great God, 
 man ! don't you think I've got enough graves 
 ashore ?" 
 
 "I just wanted to know, that was all," the 
 captain answered, in nowise offended. 
 
 Sheldon regretted his childishness. 
 
 " Oh, Captain Oleson," he called. " If you can 
 see your way to it, come ashore to-morrow and 
 lend me a hand. If you can't, send the mate." 
 
ADVENTURE 35 
 
 "Right O. I'll come myself. Mr. Johnson's 
 dead, sir. I forgot to tell you — three days ago." 
 
 Sheldon watched the Jessie's captain go down 
 the path, with waving arms and loud curses call- 
 ing upon God to sink the Solomons. Next, Shel- 
 don noted the Jessie, rolling lazily on the glassy 
 swell, and beyond, in the northwest, high over 
 Florida Island, an alpine chain of dark-massed 
 clouds. Then he turned to his partner, calling 
 for boys to carry him into the house. But 
 Hughie' Drummond had reached the end. His 
 breathing was imperceptible. By mere touch, 
 Sheldon could ascertain that the dying man's 
 temperature was going down. It must have 
 been going down when the thermometer regis- 
 tered one hundred and seven. He had burned 
 out. Sheldon knelt beside him, the house-boys 
 grouped around, their white singlets and loin- 
 cloths peculiarly at variance with their dark 
 skins and savage countenances, their huge ear- 
 plugs and carved and glistening nose-rings. 
 Sheldon tottered to his feet at last, and half-fell 
 into the steamer chair. Oppressive as the heat 
 had been, it was now even more oppressive. It 
 
36 ADVENTURE 
 
 was difficult to breathe. He panted for air. 
 The faces and naked arms of the house-boys were 
 beaded with sweat. 
 
 "Marster," one of them ventured, "big fella 
 wind he come, strong fella too much." 
 
 Sheldon nodded his head but did not look. 
 Much as he had loved Hughie Drummond, his 
 death, and the funeral it entailed, seemed an 
 intolerable burden to add to what he was already 
 sinking under. He had a feeling — nay, it was 
 a certitude — that all he had to do was to shut 
 his eyes and let go, and that he would die, sink 
 into immensity of rest. He knew it. It was 
 very simple. All he had to do was close his 
 eyes and let go; for he had reached the stage 
 where he lived by will alone. His weary body 
 seemed torn by the oncoming pangs of disso- 
 lution. He was a fool to hang on. He had 
 died a score of deaths already, and what was 
 the use of prolonging it to two score deaths 
 before he really died ? Not only was he not 
 afraid to die, but he desired to die. His weary 
 flesh and weary spirit desired it, and why should 
 the flame of him not go utterly out ? 
 
ADVENTURE 57 
 
 But his mind that could will life or death still 
 pulsed on. He saw the two whale-boats land 
 on the beach, and the sick, on stretchers or 
 pick-a-back, groaning and wailing, go by in 
 lugubrious procession. He saw the wind mak- 
 ing on the clouded horizon and thought of the 
 sick in the hospital. Here was something wait- 
 ing for his hand, to be done, and it was not in 
 his nature to lie down and sleep, or die, when 
 any task remained undone. 
 
 The boss-boys were called and given their 
 orders to rope down the hospital with its two 
 additions. He remembered the spare anchor- 
 chain, new and black-painted, that hung under 
 the house suspended from the floor beams, and 
 ordered it to be used on the hospital as well. 
 Other boys brought the coffin, a grotesque 
 patchwork of packing-cases, and under his 
 directions they laid Hughie Drummond in it. 
 Half a dozen boys carried it down the beach, 
 while he rode on the back of another, his arms 
 around the black's neck, one hand clutching a 
 prayer-book. 
 
 While he read the service, the blacks gazed 
 
38 ADVENTURE 
 
 apprehensively at the dark line on the water, 
 above which rolled and tumbled the racing 
 clouds. The first breath of the wind, faint and 
 silken, tonic with life, fanned through his dry- 
 baked body as he finished reading. 'Then came 
 the second breath of the wind, an angry gust, 
 as the shovels worked rapidly, filling in the 
 sand. So heavy was the gust that Sheldon, still 
 on his feet, seized hold of his man-horse to escape 
 being blown away. The Jessie was blotted out, 
 and a strange ominous sound arose as multi- 
 tudinous wavelets struck foaming on the. beach. 
 It was like the bubbling of some colossal caldron. 
 From all about could be heard the dull thudding 
 of falling cocoanuts. The tall, delicate-trunked 
 trees twisted and snapped about like whip- 
 lashes. The air seemed filled with their flying 
 leaves, any one of which, stem-on, could brain 
 a man. Then came the rain, a deluge, a straight, 
 horizontal sheet that poured along like a river, 
 defying gravitation. The black, with Sheldon 
 mounted on him, plunged ahead Into the thick 
 of It, stooping far forward and low to the ground 
 to avoid being toppled over backward. 
 
ADVENTURE 39 
 
 "'He's sleeping out and far to-night,'" Shel- 
 don quoted, as he thought of the dead man in 
 the sand and the rainwater trickling down upon 
 the cold clay. 
 
 So they fought their way back up the beach. 
 The other blacks caught hold of the man-horse 
 and pulled and tugged. There were among 
 them those whose fondest desire was to drag the 
 rider in the sand and spring upon him and mash 
 him into repulsive nothingness. But the auto- 
 matic pistol in his belt with its rattling, quick- 
 dealing death, and the automatic, death-defying 
 spirit in the man himself, made them refrain and 
 buckle down to the task of hauling him to safety 
 through the storm. 
 
 Wet through and exhausted, he was neverthe- 
 less surprised at the ease with which he got into a 
 change of clothing. Though he was fearfully 
 weak, he found himself actually feeling better. 
 The disease had spent itself, and the mend had 
 begun. 
 
 "Now if I don't get the fever," he said aloud, 
 and at the same moment resolved to go to taking 
 quinine as soon as he was strong enough to dare. 
 
40 ADVENTURE 
 
 He crawled out on the veranda. The rain had 
 ceased, but the wind, which had dwindled to a 
 half gale, was increasing. A big sea had sprung 
 up, and the mile-long breakers, curling up to the 
 overfall two hundred yards from shore, were 
 crashing on the beach. The Jessie was plunging 
 madly to two anchors, and every second or 
 third sea broke clear over her bow. Two flags 
 were stiffly undulating from the halyards like 
 squares of flexible sheet-iron. One was blue, 
 the other red. He knew their meaning in the 
 Berande private code — "What are your instruc- 
 tions ? Shall I attempt to land boat 1" Tacked 
 on the wall, between the signal locker and the 
 billiard rules, was the code itself, by which he 
 verified the signal before making answer. On 
 the flagstaff gaff a boy hoisted a white flag over 
 a red, which stood for : "Run to Neal Island for 
 shelter." 
 
 That Captain Oleson had been expecting this 
 signal was apparent by the celerity with which 
 the shackles were knocked out of both anchor- 
 chains. He slipped his anchors, leaving them 
 buoyedto be picked up in better weather. The 
 
ADVENTURE 41 
 
 Jessie swung off under her full staysail, then the 
 foresail, double-reefed, was run up. She was 
 away like a race-horse, clearing Balesuna Shoal 
 with half a cable length to spare. Just before 
 she rounded the point she was swallowed up in a 
 terrific squall that far outblew the first. 
 
 All that night, while squall after squall smote 
 Berande, uprooting trees, overthrowing copra- 
 sheds, and rocking the house on its tall piles, 
 Sheldon slept. He was unaware of the commo- 
 tion. He never wakened. Nor did he change 
 his position or dream. He awoke, a new man. 
 Furthermore, he was hungry. It was over a 
 week since food had passed his lips. He drank 
 a glass of condensed cream, thinned with water, 
 and by ten o'clock he dared to take a cup of 
 beef-tea. He was cheered, also, by the situation 
 in the hospital. Despite the storm there had 
 been but one death, and there was only one fresh 
 case, while half a dozen boys crawled weakly 
 away to the barracks. He wondered if it was 
 the wind that was blowing the disease away and 
 cleansing the pestilential land. 
 
 By eleven a messenger arrived from Balesuna 
 
42 ADVENTURE 
 
 village, despatched by Seelee. The Jessie had 
 gone ashore halfway between the village and 
 Neal Island. It was not till nightfall that two 
 of the crew arrived, reporting the drowning of 
 Captain Oleson and of the one remaining boy. 
 As for the Jessie, from what they told him, Shel- 
 don could not but conclude that she was a total 
 loss. Further to hearten him, he was taken by a 
 shivering fit. In half an hour he was burning up. 
 And he knew that at least another day must pass 
 before he could undertake even the smallest 
 dose of quinine. He crawled under a heap of 
 blankets, and a little later found himself laughing 
 aloud. He had surely reachec^ the limit of dis- 
 aster. Barring earthquake or tidal wave, the 
 worst had already befallen him. The Flihberty- 
 Gibbet was certainly safe in Mboli Pass. Since 
 nothing worse could happen, things simply had to 
 mend. So it was, shivering under his blankets, 
 that he laughed, until the house-boys, with heads 
 together, marvelled at the devils that were in him. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 JOAN LACKLAND 
 
 BY the second day of the northwester, 
 Sheldon was in collapse from his fever. 
 It had taken an unfair advantage of his 
 weak state, and though it was only ordinary 
 malarial fever, in forty-eight hours it had run him 
 as low as ten days of fever would have done when 
 he was in condition. But the dysentery had 
 been swept away from Berande. A score of 
 convalescents lingered in the hospital, but they 
 were improving hourly. There had been but one 
 more death — that of the man whose brother 
 had wailed over him instead of brushing the flies 
 away. 
 
 On the morning of the fourth day of his fever 
 Sheldon lay on the veranda, gazing dimly out 
 over the raging ocean. The wind was falling, 
 but a mighty sea was still thundering in on 
 Berande beach, the flying spray reaching in as 
 
 43 
 
44 ADVENTURE 
 
 far as the flagstaff mounds, the foaming wash 
 creaming against the gate-posts. He had taken 
 thirty grains of quinine, and the drug was buzzing 
 in his ears like a nest of hornets, making his 
 hands and knees tremble and causing a sickening 
 palpitation of the stomach. Once, opening his 
 eyes, he saw what he took to be an hallucination. 
 Not far out, and coming in across the Jessie's 
 anchorage, he saw a whale-boat's nose thrust 
 skyward on a smoky crest and disappear naturally 
 as an actual whale-boat's nose should disappear, 
 as it slid down the back of the sea. He knew 
 that no whale-boat should be out there, and he 
 was quite certain no men in the Solomons were 
 mad enough to be abroad in such a storm. 
 
 But the hallucination persisted. A minute 
 later, chancing to open his eyes, he saw the whale- 
 boat, full length, and saw right into it as it rose 
 on the face of a wave. He saw six sweeps at 
 work, and, in the stern, clearly outlined against 
 the overhanging wall of white, a man who stood 
 erect, gigantic, swaying with his weight on the 
 steering-sweep. This he saw, and an eighth 
 man who crouched in the bow and gazed shore- 
 
ADVENTURE 45 
 
 ward. But what startled Sheldon was the sight 
 of a woman in the sternsheets, between the stroke 
 oar and the steersman. A woman she was, for a 
 braid of her hair was flying and she was just in 
 the act of recapturing it and stowing it away 
 beneath a hat that for all the world was like his 
 own "Baden-Powell." 
 
 The boat disappeared behind the wave and 
 rose into view on the face of the following one. 
 Again he looked into it. The men were dark- 
 skinned and larger than Solomon Islanders, 
 but the woman, he could plainly see, was white. 
 Who she was, and what she was doing there, 
 were thoughts that drifted vaguely through his 
 consciousness. He was too sick to be vitally 
 interested, and, besides, he had a half^feeling 
 that it was all a dream. But he noted that 
 the men were resting on their sweeps while the 
 woman and the steersman were intently watch- 
 ing the run of seas behind them. 
 
 "Good boatmen," was Sheldon's verdict, as 
 he saw the boat leap forward on the face of a 
 huge breaker, the sweeps flying swiftly to keep her 
 on that front of the moving mountain of water 
 
46 ADVENTURE 
 
 that raced madly for the shore. It was well 
 done. Part full of water, the boat was flung 
 upon the beach, the men springing out and 
 dragging its nose to the gate-posts. Sheldon 
 had called vainly to the house-boys, who, at the 
 moment, were dosing the remaining patients 
 in the hospital. He knew he was unable to rise 
 up and go down the path to meet the newcomers, 
 so he lay back in the steamer chair and watched 
 for ages while they cared for the boat. The 
 woman stood to one side, her hand resting on the 
 gate. Occasional surges of sea-water washed 
 over her feet, which he could see were encased in 
 rubber sea-boots. She scrutinized the house 
 sharply, and for some time she gazed at him 
 steadily. At last, speaking to two of the men, 
 who turned and followed her, she started up the 
 path. 
 
 Sheldon attempted to rise, got half up out of 
 his chair, and fell back helplessly. He was sur- 
 prised at the size of the men, who loomed like 
 giants behind her. Both were six-footers, and 
 they were heavy in proportion. He had never 
 seen islanders like them. They were not black 
 
ADVENTURE 47 
 
 like the Solomon Islanders,, but light brown ; 
 and their features were larger, more regular, 
 and even handsome. 
 
 The woman — or girl, rather, he decided — 
 walked along the veranda toward him. The 
 two men waited at the head of the steps, watch- 
 ing curiously. The girl was angry. He could 
 see that. Her gray eyes were flashing, and her 
 lips were quivering. That she had a temper, was 
 his thought. But the eyes were striking. He 
 decided that they were not gray after all, or, at 
 least, not all gray. They were large and wide 
 apart, and they looked at him from under level 
 brows. Her face was cameolike, so clear cut 
 was it. There were other striking things about 
 her — the cow-boy Stetson hat, the heavy braids 
 of brown hair, and the long-barrelled 38 Colt's 
 revolver that hung in its holster on her hip. 
 
 "Pretty hospitality, I must say," was her greet- 
 ing, "letting strangers sink or swim in your front 
 yard." 
 
 "I — I beg your pardon," he starnmered, by a 
 supreme effort dragging himself to his feet. 
 
 His legs wabbled under him, and with a suffo- 
 
48 ADVENTURE 
 
 eating sensation he began sinking to the floor. 
 He was aware of a feeble gratification as he saw 
 solicitude leap into her eyes; then blackness 
 smote him, and, at the moment of smiting him, 
 his thought was that at last, and for the first time 
 in his life, he had fainted. 
 
 The ringing of the big bell aroused him. He 
 opened his eyes and found that he was on the 
 couch indoors, A glance at the clock told him 
 that it was six, and from the direction the sun's 
 rays streamed into the room he knew that it was 
 morning. At first he puzzled over something 
 untoward he was sure had happened. Then, 
 on the wall, he saw a Stetson hat hanging, and, 
 beneath it, a full cartridge-belt and a long- 
 barrelled 38 Colt's revolver. The slender girth 
 of the belt told its feminine story, and he remem- 
 bered the whale-boat of the day before and the 
 gray eyes that flashed beneath the level brows. 
 She, it must have been, who had just rung the 
 bell. The cares of the plantation rushed upon 
 him, and he sat up In bed, clutching at the wall 
 for support as the mosquito screen lurched dizzily 
 around him. He was still sitting there, holding 
 
ADVENTURE 49 
 
 on, with eyes closed, striving to master his giddi- 
 ness, when he heard her voice. 
 
 "You'll lie right down again, sir," she said. 
 
 It was sharply imperative, a voice used to com- 
 mand. At the same time one hand pressed him 
 back toward the pillow while the other caught 
 him from behind and eased him down. 
 
 "You've been unconscious for twenty-four 
 hours now," she went on, "and I have taken 
 charge. When I say the word you'll get up, 
 and not until then. Now, what medicine do you 
 take .'' — quinine ? Here are ten grains. That's 
 right. You'll make a good patient." 
 
 "My dear madam," he began. 
 
 "You mustn't speak," she interrupted, "that 
 is, in protest. Otherwise, you can talk." 
 
 "But the plantation — " 
 
 "A dead man is of no use on a plantation. 
 Don't you want to know about me? My 
 vanity is hurt. Here am I, just through my 
 first shipwreck, and here are you, not the least 
 bit curious, talking about your miserable planta- 
 tion. Can't you see that I am just bursting to 
 tell somebody, anybody, about my shipwreck ?" 
 
so ADVENTURE 
 
 He smiled. It was the first time in weeks. 
 And he smiled, not so much at what she said, 
 as at the way she said it — the whimsical ex- 
 pression of her face, the laughter in her eyes, 
 and the several tiny lines of humor that drew 
 in at the corners. He was curiously wondering 
 as to what her age was, as he said aloud : 
 
 "Yes, tell me, please." 
 
 "That I will not — not now," she retorted, 
 with a toss of the head. "I'll find somebody 
 to tell my story to who does not have to be- 
 asked. Also, I want information. I managed 
 to find out what time to ring the bell to turn 
 the hands to. And that is about all. I don't 
 understand the ridiculous speech of your people. 
 What time do they knock off ?" 
 
 "At eleven — go on again at one." 
 
 "That will do, thank you. And now, where 
 do you keep the key to the provisions ? I want 
 to feed my men." 
 
 "Your men!" he gasped. "On tinned 
 goods ! No, no. Let them go out and eat 
 with my boys." 
 
 Her eyes flashed as on the day before, and 
 
ADVENTURE 51 
 
 he saw again the imperative expression on her 
 face. 
 
 "That I won't. My men are men. I've 
 been out to your miserable barracks and watched 
 them eat. Faugh ! Potatoes ! Nothing but 
 potatoes. No salt. Nothing. Only potatoes. 
 I may have been mistaken, but I thought I 
 understood them to say that that was all they 
 ever got to eat. Two meals a day and every 
 day in the week ?" 
 
 He nodded. , 
 
 "Well, my men wouldn't stand for that a 
 single day, much less a whole week. Where is 
 the key?" 
 
 "Hanging on that clothes-hook under the 
 clock." 
 
 He gave in easily enough, but as she was 
 reaching down the key she heard him say : 
 
 "Fancy niggers and tinned provisions." 
 
 This time she really was angry. The blood 
 was in her cheeks as she turned on him. 
 
 "My men are not niggers. The sooner you 
 understand that the better for our acquaint- 
 ance. As for the tinned goods, I'll pay for all 
 
52 ADVENTURE 
 
 they eat. Please don't worry about that. 
 Worry is not good for you in your condition. 
 And I won't stay any longer than I have to 
 — just long enough to get you on your feet 
 and not go away with the feeling of having 
 deserted, a white man." 
 
 "You're American, aren't you?" he asked 
 quietly. 
 
 The question disconcerted her for the moment. 
 
 "Yes,"' she vouchsafed, with a defiant look. 
 "Why.?" 
 
 "Nothing. I merely thought so." 
 
 "Anything further .?" 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 "Why?" he asked. 
 
 "Oh, nothing. I thought you might have 
 something pleasant to say." 
 
 "My name is Sheldon, David Sheldon," he 
 said, with direct relevance, holding out a thin 
 hand. 
 
 Her hand started out impulsively, then 
 checked. 
 
 "My name is Lackland, Joan Lackland." 
 The hand went out. "And let us be friends." 
 
ADVENTURE S3 
 
 "It could- not be otherwise — " he began 
 lamely. 
 
 "And I can feed my men all the tinned goods 
 I want ?" she rushed on. 
 
 "Till the cows come home," he answered, 
 attempting her own lightness, then adding, 
 "that is, to Berande. You see we don't have 
 any cows at Berande." 
 
 She fixed him coldly with her eyes. 
 
 "Is that a joke .?" she demanded. 
 
 " I really don't know — I — I thought it was, 
 but then, you see, I'm sick." 
 
 "You're English, aren't you ?" was her next 
 query. 
 
 "Now that's too much, even for a sick 
 man," he cried. "You know well enough that 
 I am." 
 
 "Oh," she said absently. "Then you are?" 
 
 He frowned, tightened his lips, then burst 
 into laughter, in which she joined. 
 
 "It's my own fault," he confessed. "I 
 shouldn't have baited you. I'll be careful in 
 the future." 
 
 "In the meantime, go on laughing, and I'll 
 
54 ADVENTURE 
 
 see about breakfast. Is there anything you 
 would fancy ?" 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 "It will do you good to eat something. 
 Your fever has burned out, and you are merely 
 weak. Wait a moment." 
 
 She hurried out of the room in the direction 
 of the kitchen, tripped at the door in a pair of 
 sandals several times too large for her feet, 
 and disappeared in rosy confusion. 
 
 "By Jove, those are my sandals," he thought 
 to himself. "The girl hasn't a thing to wear 
 except what she landed on the beach in, and 
 she certainly landed in sea-boots." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 ( 
 
 SHE WOULD A PLANTER BE 
 
 SHELDON mended rapidly. The fever had 
 burned out, and there was nothing for him 
 to do but gather strength. Joan had taken 
 the Gook in hand, and for the first time, as Shel- 
 don remarked, the chop at Berande was white 
 man's chop. With her own hands Joan pre- 
 pared the sick man's food, and between that 
 and the cheer she brought him, he was able, 
 after two dkys, to totter feebly out upon the 
 veranda. The situation struck him as strange, 
 and stranger still was the fact that it did not 
 -seem strange to the girl at all. She had settled 
 down and taken charge of the household as a 
 matter of course, as if he were her father, or 
 brother, or as if she were a man like himself. 
 
 "It is just too delightful for anything," she 
 assured him. "It is like a page out of some 
 romance. Here I come along out of the sea 
 
 S5 
 
55 ADVENTURE 
 
 and find a sick man all alone with two hundred 
 slaves — " 
 
 "Recruits," he corrected. "Contract labor- 
 ers. They serve only three years, and they 
 are free agents when they enter upon their 
 contracts." 
 
 "Yes, yes," she hurried on; " — a sick man 
 alone with two hundred recruits on- a cannibal 
 island — they are cannibals, aren't they ? Or 
 is it all talk?" 
 
 "Talk !" he said, with a smile. "It's a trifle 
 more than that. Most of my boys are from 
 the bush, and every bushman is a cannibal." 
 
 " But not after they become recruits ? Surely, 
 the boys you have here wouldn't be guilty." 
 
 "They'd eat you if the chance afforded." 
 
 "Are you just saying so, on theory ? or do 
 you really know ?" she asked. 
 
 "I know." 
 
 "Why 1 What makes you think so ? Your 
 own men here ?" 
 
 "Yes, my own men here, the very house- 
 boys, the cook that at the present moment is 
 making such delicious rolls, thanks to you. 
 
ADVENTURE 57 
 
 Not more than three months ago eleven of 
 them sneaked a whale-boat and ran for Ma- 
 laita. Nine of them belonged to Malaita. 
 Two were bushmen from San Cristoval. They 
 were fools, the two from San Cristoval, I 
 mean ; so would any two Malaita men be who 
 trusted themselves in a boat with nine from 
 San Cristoval." 
 
 "Yes ?" she asked eagerly. "Then what 
 happened ?" 
 
 "The nine Malaita men ate the two from 
 San Cristoval, all except the heads, which are 
 too valuable for mere eating. They stowed 
 them away in the stern-locker till they landed. 
 And those two heads are now in some bush 
 village back of Langa Langa." 
 
 She clapped her hands and her eyes sparkled. 
 
 "They are really and truly cannibals ! And 
 just think, this is the twentieth century ! And 
 I thought romance and adventure were fossil- 
 ized!" 
 
 He looked at her with mild amusement. 
 
 "What is the matter now?" she queried. 
 
 "Oh, nothing, only I don't fancy being eaten 
 
58 ADVENTURE 
 
 by a lot of filthy niggers is the least bit 
 romantic." 
 
 "No, of course not," she admitted. "But 
 to be among them, controlling them, directing 
 them, two hundred of them, and to escape 
 being eaten by them — that, at least, if it isn't 
 romantic, is certainly the quintessence of ad- 
 venture. And adventure and romance are allied, 
 you know." 
 
 "By the same token, to go into a nigger's 
 stomach should be the quintessence of adven- 
 ture," he retorted. 
 
 "I don't think you have any romance in 
 you," she exclaimed. "You're just dull and 
 somber and sordid like the business men at 
 home. I don't know why you're here at all. 
 You should be at home placidly vegetating as 
 a banker's clerk or — or — " 
 
 "A shopkeeper's assistant, thank you." 
 
 "Yes, that] — anything. What under the 
 sun are you doing here on the edge of things ?" 
 
 "Earning my bread and butter, trying to get 
 on in the world." 
 
 "'By the bitter road the younger son must 
 
ADVENTURE S9 
 
 tread, Ere he win to hearth and saddle of his 
 own,'" she quoted. "Why, if that isn't ro- 
 mantic, then nothing is romantic. Think of all 
 the younger sons out over the world, on a 
 myriad of adventures, winning to those same 
 hearths and saddles. And here you are in the 
 thick of it, doing it, and here am I in the thick 
 of it, doing it." 
 
 "I — I beg pardon," he drawled. 
 
 "Well, I'm a younger daughter, then," she 
 amended ; " and I have no hearth nor saddle 
 — I haven't anybody or anything — and I'm 
 just as far on the edge of things as you are." 
 
 "In your case, then, I'll admit there is a bit 
 of romance," he confessed. 
 
 He could not help but think of the preceding 
 nights, and of her sleeping in the hammock on 
 the veranda, under mosquito curtains, her 
 body-guard of Tahitian sailors stretched out at 
 the far corner of the veranda within call. He 
 had been too helpless to resist, but now he 
 resolved she should have his couch inside while 
 he would take the hammock. 
 
 "You see, I had read and dreamed about 
 
6o ADVENTURE 
 
 romance all my life," she 'was saying, "but I 
 never, in my wildest fancies, thought that I 
 should live it. It was all so unexpected. 
 Two years ago I thought there was nothing 
 left to me but — " She faltered, and made a 
 moue of distaste. "Well, the only thing that 
 remained, it seemed to me, was marriage." 
 
 "And you preferred a cannibal isle and a 
 cartridge-belt ? " he suggested. 
 
 "I didn't think of the cannibal isle, but the 
 cartridge-belt was blissful." 
 
 "You wouldn't dare use the revolver if you 
 were compelled to. Or," noting the glint in 
 her eyes, "if you did use it, to — well, to hit 
 anything." 
 
 She started up suddenly to enter the house. 
 He knew she was going for her revolver. 
 
 "Never mind," he said, "here's mine. What 
 can you do with it ?" 
 
 "Shoot the block off your flag-halyards." 
 
 He smiled his unbelief. 
 
 "I don't know the gun," she said dubiously. 
 
 "It's a light trigger and you don't have to 
 hold down. Draw fine." 
 
ADVENTURE 6i 
 
 "Yes, yes," she spoke impatiently. "I know- 
 automatics — they jam when they get hot — 
 only I don't know yours." She looked at it a 
 moment. " It's cocked. Is there a cartridge in 
 the chamber ?" 
 
 She fired, and the block remained intact. 
 
 "It's a long shot," he said, with the intention 
 of easing her chagrin. 
 
 But she bit her lip and fired again. The 
 bullet emitted a sharp shriek as it rico- 
 chetted into space. The metal block rattled 
 back and forth. Again and again she fired, 
 till the clip was emptied of its eight cartridges. 
 Six of them were hits. The block still swayed 
 at the gaff end, but it was battered out of all 
 usefulness. Sheldon was astonished. It was 
 better than he or even Hughie Drummond could 
 have done. The women he had known, when 
 they sporadically fired a rifle or revolver, 
 usually shrieked, shut their eyes, and blazed 
 away into space. 
 
 "That's really good shooting — for a woman," 
 he said. "You only missed it twice, and it was 
 a strange weapon." 
 
62 ADVENTURE 
 
 "But I can't make out the two misses," she 
 complained. "The gun worked beautifully, too. 
 Give me another clip and I'll hit it eight times 
 for anything you wish." 
 
 "I don't doubt it. Now I'll have to get a 
 new block. Viaburi ! Here you fella, catch 
 one fella block along store-room." 
 
 " I'll wager you can't do it eight dut of eight 
 — anything you wish," she challenged. 
 
 "No fear of my taking it on," was his answer. 
 "Who taught you to shoot .?" 
 
 "Oh, my father, at first, and then Von, and 
 his cow-boys. He was a shot — Dad, I mean, 
 though Von was splendid, too." 
 
 Sheldon wondered secretly who Von was, 
 and he speculated as to whether it was Von 
 who two years previously had led her to believe 
 that nothing remained for her but matrimony. 
 
 "What part of the United States is your 
 home?" he asked. "Chicago or Wyoming? 
 or somewhere out there ? You know you 
 haven't told me a thing about yourself. All 
 that I know is that you are Miss Joan Lack- 
 land from anywhere." 
 
ADVENTURE 63 
 
 "You'd have to go farther west to find my 
 stamping grounds." 
 
 "Ah, let me see — Nevada?" 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "California.?" 
 
 "Still farther west." » 
 
 "It can't be, or else I've forgotten my geog- 
 raphy." 
 
 "It's your politics," she laughed. "Don't 
 you remember 'Annexation' ?" 
 
 "The Philippines !" he cried triumphantly. 
 
 "No, Hawaii. I was born there. It is a 
 beautiful land. My, I'm almost homesick for 
 it already. Not that I haven't been away. I 
 was in New York when the crash came. But I 
 do think it is the sweetest spot on earth, — 
 Hawaii, I mean." 
 
 "Then what under the sun are you doing 
 down here in this God-forsaken place ? " he 
 asked. "Only fools come here," he added 
 bitterly. 
 
 "Nielsen wasn't a fool, was he ?" she 
 queried. "As I understand, he made three 
 millions here." 
 
64 ADVENTURE 
 
 "Only too true, and that fact is responsible 
 for my being here." 
 
 "And for me, too," she said. "Dad heard 
 about him in the Marquesas, and so we started. 
 Only poor Dad didn't get here." 
 
 "He — your father — died ?" he faltered. 
 
 She nodded, and her eyes grew soft and 
 moist. 
 
 "I might as well begin at the beginning." 
 She lifted her head with a proud air of dismiss- 
 ing sadness after the manner of a woman 
 qualified to wear a Baden-Powell and a long- 
 barrelled Colt's. "I was born at Hilo. That's 
 on the island of Hawaii — the biggest and best 
 in the whole group. I was brought up the 
 way most girls in Hawaii are brought up. 
 They live in the open, and they know how to 
 ride and swim before they know what six- 
 times-six is. As for me, I can't remember 
 when I first got on a horse nor when I learned 
 to swim. That came before my A B C's. 
 Dad owned cattle ranches on Hawaii and Maui 
 — big ones, for the islands. Hokuna had two 
 hundred thousand acres alone. It extended in 
 
ADVENTURE 65 
 
 between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, and it 
 was there I learned to shoot goats and wild 
 cattle. On Molokai they have big spotted 
 deer. Von was the manager of Hokuna. He 
 had two daughters about my own age, and I 
 always spent the hot season there, and, once, a 
 whole year. The three of us were like Indians. 
 Not that we ran wild, exactly, but that we were 
 wild to run wild. There were always the 
 governesses, you know, and lessons, and sewing, 
 and housekeeping; but I'm afraid we were 
 too often bribed to our tasks with promises of 
 horses or of cattle drives. 
 
 "Von had been in the army, and Dad was an 
 old sea-dog, and they were both stern disci- 
 plinarians; only the two girls had no mother, 
 and neither had I, and they were two men 
 after all. They spoiled us terribly. You see, 
 they didn't have any wives, and they made 
 chums out of us — when our tasks were done. 
 We had to learn to do everything about the 
 house twice as well as the native servants did it 
 — that was so that we should know how to 
 manage some day. And we always made the 
 
66 ADVENTURE 
 
 cocktails, which was too holy a rite for any 
 servant. Then, too, we were never allowed 
 anything we could not take care of ourselves. 
 Of course the cow-boys always roped and saddled 
 our horses, but we had to be able ourselves to 
 go out in the paddock and rope our horses — " 
 
 "What do you mean by rope?" Sheldon 
 asked. 
 
 "To lariat them, to lasso them. And Dad 
 and Von timed us in the saddling and made 
 a most rigid examination of the result. It was 
 the same way with our revolvers and rifles. 
 The house-boys always cleaned them and 
 greased them ; but we had to learn how in 
 order to see that they did it properly. More 
 than once, at first, one or the other of us had 
 our rifles taken away for a week just because 
 of a tiny speck of rust. We had to know how 
 to build fires in the driving rain, too, out of 
 wet wood, when we camped out, which was the 
 hardest thing of all — except grammar, I do 
 believe. We learned more from Dad and Von 
 than from the governesses ; Dad taught us 
 French and Von, German. We learned both 
 
ADVENTURE 67 
 
 languages passably well, and we learned them 
 wholly in the saddle or in camp. 
 ■, "In the cool season the girls used to come 
 down and visit me in Hilo, where Dad had two 
 houses, one at the beach; or the three of us 
 used to go down to our place in Puna, and that 
 meant canoes and boats and fishing and swim- 
 ming. Then, too. Dad belonged to the Royal 
 Hawaiian Yacht Club, and took us racing and 
 cruising. Dad could never get away from the 
 sea, you know. When I was fourteen I was 
 Dad's actual housekeeper, with entire power 
 over the servants, and I am very proud of that 
 period of my life. And when I was sixteen 
 we three girls were all sent up to California 
 to Mills Seminary, which was quite fashionable 
 and stifling. How we used to long for home ! 
 We didn't chum with the other girls, who called 
 us little cannibals, just because we came from 
 the Sandwich Islands, and who made invidious 
 remarks about our ancestors banqueting on 
 Captain Cook — which was historically untrue, 
 and, besides, our ancestors hadn't lived in 
 Hawaii. 
 
68 ADVENTURE 
 
 "I was three years at Mills Seminary, with 
 trips home, of course, and two years in New 
 York; and then Dad went smash in a sugar 
 plantation on Maui. The report of the engineers 
 had not been right. Then Dad had built a 
 railroad th^t was called 'Lackland's folly' — it 
 will pay ultimately, though. But it contributed 
 to the smash. The Pelaulau Ditch was the 
 finishing blow. And nothing would have hap- 
 pened anyway, if it hadn't been for that big 
 money panic in Wall Street. Dear good Dad ! 
 He never let me know. But I read about the 
 crash in a newspaper, and hurried home. It 
 was before that, though, that people had been 
 dinging into my ears that marriage was all any 
 woman could get out of life, and good-by to 
 romance. Instead of which, with Dad's failure, 
 I fell right into romance." 
 
 "How long ago was that ?" Sheldon asked. 
 
 "Last year — the year of the panic." 
 
 "Let me see," Sheldon pondered with an air 
 of gravity. "Sixteen plus five, plus one, equals 
 twenty-two. You were born in 1887 ?" 
 
 "Yes ; but it is not nice of you." 
 
ADVENTURE 69 
 
 "I am really sorry," he said, "but the prob- 
 lem was so obvious." 
 
 "Can't you ever say nice things ? Or is it 
 the way you English have ?" There was a 
 snap in her gray eyes, and her lips quivered 
 suspiciously for a moment. "I should recom- 
 mend, Mr. Sheldon, that you read Gertrude 
 Atherton's American Wives and English Hus- 
 bands." 
 
 "Thank you, I have. It's over there." He 
 pointed at the generously filled book-shelves. 
 "But I am afraid it is rather partisan." 
 
 "Anything un-English is bound to be," she 
 retorted. "I never have liked the English 
 anyway. The last one I knew was an over- 
 seer. Dad was compelled to discharge him." 
 
 "One swallow doesn't make a summer." 
 
 "But that Englishman made lots of trouble 
 — there ! And now please don't make me any 
 more absurd than I already am." 
 
 "I'm trying not to." 
 
 "Oh, for that matter — " She tossed her 
 head, opened her mouth to complete the retort, 
 then changed her mind. "I shall ^o on with 
 
70 ADVENTURE 
 
 my history. Dad had practically nothing left, 
 and he decided to return to the sea. He'd 
 always loved it, and I half believe that he was 
 glad things had happened as they did. He 
 was like a boy again, busy with plans and 
 preparations from morning till night. He used 
 to sit up half the night talking things over with 
 me. That was after I had shown him that I 
 was really resolved to go along.. 
 
 "He had made his start, you know, in the 
 South Seas, — pearls and pearl shell, — and he 
 was sure that more fortunes, in trove of one 
 sort and another, were to be picked up. Cocoa- 
 nut planting was his particular idea, with trad- 
 ing, and maybe pearling, along with other 
 things, until the plantation should come into 
 bearing. He traded off his yacht for a schooner, 
 the Miele, and away we went. I took care of 
 him and studied navigation. He was his own 
 skipper. We had a Danish mate, Mr. Ericson, 
 and a mixed crew of Japanese and Hawaiians. 
 We went up and down the Line Islands, first, 
 until Dad was heartsick. Everything was 
 changed. They had been annexed and divided 
 
ADVENTURE 71 
 
 by one power or another, while big companies 
 had stepped in and gobbled land, trading 
 rights, fishing rights, everything. 
 
 "Next we sailed for the Marquesas. They 
 were beautiful, but the natives were nearly ex- 
 tinct. Dad was cut up when he learned that the 
 French charged an export duty on copra — he 
 called it mediseval — but he liked the land. 
 There was a valley of fifteen thousand acres on 
 Nuka-hiva, half enclosing a perfect anchorage, 
 which he fell in love with and bought for twelve 
 hundred Chili dollars. But the French taxation 
 was outrageous (that was why the land was so 
 cheap), and, worst of all, we could obtain no 
 labor. What kanakas there were wouldn't work, 
 and the officials seerned to sit up nights think- 
 ing out new obstacles to put in our way. 
 
 " Six months was enough for Dad. The situa- 
 tion was hopeless. 'We'll go to the Solomons,' 
 he said, ' and get a whiff of English rule. And if 
 there are no openings there, we'll go on to the 
 Bismarck Archipelago. I'll wager the Admiral- 
 ties are not yet civilized.' All preparations were 
 made, things packed bn board, and a new crew of 
 
72 ADVENTURE 
 
 Marquesans and Tahitians shipped. We were 
 just ready to start to Tahiti, where a lot of re- 
 pairs and refitting for the Miele were necessary, 
 when poor Dad came down sick and died." 
 
 "And you were left all alone ?" 
 
 Joan nodded. 
 
 "Very much alone. I had no brothers nor sis- 
 ters, and all Dad's people were drowned in a 
 Kansas cloud-burst. That happened when he 
 was a little boy. Of course, I could go back 
 to Von. There's always a home there waiting 
 for me. But why should I go ? Besides, there 
 were Dad's plans, and I felt that it devolved 
 upon me to carry them out. It seemed a fine 
 thing to do. Also, I wanted to carry them out. 
 And — here I am. 
 
 "Take my advice and never go to Tahiti. 
 It is a lovely place, and so are the nativeSj but the 
 white people ! Now Barabbas lived in Tahiti. 
 Thieves, robbers, and liars — that is what they 
 are. The honest men wouldn't require the fin- 
 gers of one hand to count. The fact that I was a 
 woman only simplified matters with them. 
 They robbed me on every pretext, and they lied 
 
ADVENTURE 73 
 
 without pretext or need. Poor Mr. Ericson was 
 corrupted. He joined the robbers and O.K.'d 
 all their demands even up to a thousand per cent. 
 If they robbed me of ten francs, his share was 
 three. One bill of fifteen hundred francs I paid, 
 netted him five hundred francs. All this, of 
 course, I learned afterward. But the Miele was 
 old, the repairs had to be made, and I was charged 
 not three prices, but seven prices. 
 
 "I never shall know how much Ericson got 
 out of it. He lived ashore in a nicely furnished 
 house. The shipwrights were giving it to him 
 rent-free. Fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, and ice 
 came to this house every day, and he paid for 
 none of it. It was part of his graft from the 
 various merchants. And all the while, with tears 
 in his eyes, he bemoaned the vile treatment I 
 was receiving from the gang. No, I did not fall 
 among thieves. I went to Tahiti. 
 
 "But when the robbers fell to cheating one 
 another, I got my first clews to the state of affairs. 
 One of the robbed robbers came to me after 
 dark with facts, figures, and assertions. I knew 
 I was ruined if I went to law. The judges were 
 
74 ADVENTURE 
 
 corrupt like everything else. But I did do one 
 thing. In the dead of night I went to Ericson's 
 house. I had the same revolver I've got now, 
 and I made him stay in bed while I overhauled 
 things. Nineteen hundred and odd francs was 
 what I carried away with me. He never com- 
 plained to the police, and he never came back 
 on board. As for the rest of the gang, they 
 laughed and snapped their fingers at me. There 
 were two Americans in the place, and they 
 warned me to leave the law alone unless I wanted 
 to leave the Miele behind as well. 
 
 "Then I sent to New Zealand and got a Ger- 
 man mate. He had a master's certificate, and 
 was on the ship's papers as captain, but I was a 
 better navigator than he, and I was really cap- 
 tain myself. I lost her, too, but it's no reflec- 
 tion on my seamanship. We were drifting four 
 days outside there in dead calms. • Then the 
 Nor'wester caught on and drove us on the lee 
 shore. We made sail and tried to claw off, when 
 the rotten work of the Tahiti shipwrights became 
 manifest. Our jib-boom and all our head'-stays 
 carried away. Our only chance was to turn and 
 
ADVENTURE 75 
 
 run through the passage between Florida and 
 Ysabel. And when we were safely through, in 
 the twilight, where the chart shows fourteen 
 fathoms as the shoalest water, we smashed on a 
 coral patch. The poor old Miele struck only 
 once, and then went clear ; but it was too much 
 for her, and we just had time to clear away in the 
 boat when she went down. The German mate 
 was drowned. We lay all night to a sea-drag, 
 and next morning sighted your place here." 
 
 "I suppose you will go back to Von, now ?" 
 Sheldon queried. 
 
 "Nothing of the sort. Dad planned to go to 
 the Solomons. I shall look about for some land 
 and start a small plantation. Do you know of 
 any good land around here ? Cheap ?" 
 
 "By George, you Yankees are remarkable, 
 really remarkable," said Sheldon,"! should never 
 have dreamed of such a venture." 
 
 "Adventure," Joan corrected him. 
 
 "That's right — adventure it is. And if you'd 
 gone ashore on Malaita instead of Guadalcanar, 
 you'd have been kai-kai'd long ago, along with 
 your noble Tahitian sailors." 
 
76 ADVENTURE 
 
 Joan shuddered. 
 
 "To tell the truth," she confessed, "we were 
 very much afraid to land on Guadalcanar. I 
 read in the Sailing Directions that the natives 
 were treacherous and hostile. Some day I 
 should like to go to Malaita. Are there any 
 plantations there ?" 
 
 "Not one. Not a white trader even." 
 
 "Then I shall go over on a recruiting vessel 
 some time." 
 
 "Impossible!" Sheldon cried. "It is no 
 place for a woman." 
 
 "I shall go just the same," she repeated. 
 
 "But no self-respecting woman — " 
 
 "Be careful," she warned him. "I shall go 
 some day, and then you may be sorry for the 
 names you have called me." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 TEMPEST 
 
 IT was the first time Sheldon had been at 
 close quarters with an American girl, and 
 he would have wondered if all American 
 girls were like Joan Lackland had he not had wit 
 enough to realize that she was not at all typical. 
 Her quick mind and changing moods bewildered 
 him, while her outlook on life was so different 
 from what he conceived a woman's outlook 
 should be, that he was more often than not at' 
 sixes and sevens with her. He could never antic- 
 ipate what she would say or do next. Of only 
 one thing was he sure, and that was that what- 
 ever she said or did was bound to be unexpected 
 and unsuspected. There seemed, too, something 
 almost hysterical in her make-up. Her temper 
 was quick and stormy, and she relied too much 
 on herself and too little on him, which did not 
 approximate at all to his ideal of woman's 
 
 77 
 
78 ADVENTURE 
 
 conduct when a man was around. Her assump- 
 tion of equality with him was disconcerting, and 
 at times he half-consciously resented the impu- 
 dence and bizarreness of her intrusion upon him 
 
 — rising out of the sea in a howling nor'wester, 
 fresh from poking her revolver under Ericson's 
 nose, protected by her gang of huge Polynesian 
 sailors, and settling down in Berande like any 
 shipwrecked sailor. It was all on a par with her 
 Baden-Powell and the long 38 Colt's. 
 
 At any rate, she did not look the part. And 
 that was what he could not forgive. Had she 
 been short-haired, heavy-jawed, large-muscled, 
 hard-bitten, and utterly unlovely in every way, 
 all would have been well. Instead of which she 
 was hopelessly and deliciously feminine. Her 
 hair worried him, it was so generously beautiful. 
 And she was so slenderly and prettily the woman 
 
 — the girl, rather — that it cut him like a knife 
 to see her, with quick, comprehensive eyes and 
 sharply imperative voice, superintend the launch- 
 ing of the whale-boat through the surf. In imagi- 
 nation he could see her roping a horse, and it 
 always made him shudder. Then, too, she was 
 
ADVENTURE 79 
 
 so many-sided. Her knowledge of literature 
 and art surprised him, while deep down was the 
 feeling that a girl who knew such things had no 
 right to know how to rig tackles, heave up an- 
 chors, and sail schooners around the South Seas. 
 Such things in her brain were like so many oaths 
 on her lips. While for such a girl to insist that 
 she was going on a recruiting cruise around 
 Malaita was positive self-sacrilege. 
 
 He was perturbedly harked back to her femi- 
 nineness. She could play the piano far better 
 than his sisters at home, and with far finer appre- 
 ciation — the piano that poor Hughie had so 
 heroically labored over to keep in condition. 
 And when she strummed the guitar and sang 
 liquid velvety Hawaiian hulas, he sat entranced. 
 Then she was all woman, and the magic of sex 
 kidnapped the irritations of the day and made 
 him forget the big revolver, the Baden-Powell, 
 and all the rest. But what right, the next 
 thought in his brain would whisper, had such a 
 girl to swagger aroxmd like a man and exult that 
 adventure was not dead ? Women that adven- 
 tured were adventuresses, and the connotation 
 
8o ADVENTURE 
 
 was not nice. Besides, he was not enamored 
 of adventure. Not since he was a boy had it 
 appealed to him — though it would have driven 
 him hard to explain what had brought him from 
 England to the Solomons if it had not been ad- 
 venture. 
 
 r Sheldon certainly was not happy. The uncon- 
 ventional state of affairs was too much for his 
 conservative disposition and training. Berande, 
 inhabited by one lone white man, was no place 
 for Joan Lackland. Yet he racked his brain 
 for a way out, and even talked it over with her. 
 In the first place, the steamer from Australia 
 was not due for three weeks. 
 
 "One thing is evident: you don't want me 
 here," she said. "I'll man the whale-boat to- 
 morrow and go over to Tulagi." 
 
 "But as I told you before, that is impossible," 
 he cried. " There is no one there. The Resident 
 Commissioner is away in Australia. There is only 
 one white man, a third assistant under strapper 
 and ex-sailor — a common sailor. He is in 
 charge of the government of the Solomons, to say 
 nothing of a hundred or so niggers — prisoners. 
 
ADVENTURE 8i 
 
 Besides, he is such a fool that he would fine you 
 five pounds for not having entered at Tulagi, 
 which is the port of entry, you know. He is 
 not a nice man, and I repeat, it is impossible." 
 
 "There is Guvutu," she suggested. 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 "There's nothing there but fever and five 
 white men who are drinking themselves to death. 
 I couldn't permit it." 
 
 "Oh, thank you," she said quietly. "I guess 
 I'll start to-day. — Viaburi ! You go along 
 Noah, speak 'm come along me." 
 
 Noa Noah was her head sailor, who had been 
 boatswain of the Miele. 
 
 "Where are you going?" Sheldon asked in 
 surprise. "Viaburi ! You stop." 
 
 "To Guvutu — immediately," was her reply. 
 
 "But I won't permit it." 
 
 "That is why I am going. You said it once 
 before, and it is something I cannot brook." 
 
 "What ?" He was bewildered by her sudden 
 anger. "If I have offended in any way — " 
 
 "Viaburi, you fetch 'm one fella Noa Noah 
 along me," she commanded. 
 
82 ADVENTURE 
 
 I 
 The black boy started to obey. 
 
 "Viaburi ! You no stop I break 'm head 
 belong you. And now, Miss Lackland, I insist ; 
 you must explain. What have I said or done to 
 merit this ?" 
 
 "You have presumed, you have dared — " 
 
 She choked and swallowed, and could not go 
 on. 
 
 Sheldon looked the picture of despair. 
 
 "I confess my head is going around with it 
 all," he said. "If you could only be explicit." 
 
 "As explicit as you were when you told me 
 that you would not permit me to go to Guvutu ? " 
 
 "But what's wrong with that ?" 
 
 "But you have no right — no man has the 
 right — to tell me what he will permit or not 
 permit. I'm too old to have a guardian, nor 
 did I sail all the way to the Solomons to find 
 
 one." 
 
 "A gentleman is every woman's guardian." 
 "Well, I'm not every woman — that's all. 
 Will you kindly allow me to send your boy for 
 Noa- Noah ? I wish him to launch the whale- 
 boat. Or shall I -go myself for him ?" 
 
ADVENTURE 83 
 
 Both were now on their feet, she with flushed 
 cheeks and angry eyes, he, puzzled, vexed, and 
 alarmed. The black boy stood like a statue 
 — a plum-black statue — taking no interest in 
 the transactions of these incomprehensible 
 whites, but dreaming with calm eyes of a cer- 
 tain bush village high on the jungle slopes of 
 Malaita, with blue smoke curling up from the 
 grass houses against the gray background of 
 an oncoming mountain squall. 
 
 "But you won't do anything so foolish — " 
 he began. 
 
 "There you go again," she cried. 
 
 "I didn't mean it that way, and you know I 
 didn't." He was speaking slowly and gravely. 
 "And that other thing, that not permitting — 
 it is only a manner of speaking. Of course I 
 am not your guardian. You know you can go 
 to Guvutu if you want to" — "or to the devil," 
 he was almost tempted to add. "Only, I 
 should deeply regret it, that is all. And I am 
 very sorry that I should have said anything 
 that hurt you. Remember, I am an English- 
 man." 
 
84 ADVENTURE 
 
 Joan smiled and sat down again. 
 
 "Perhaps I have been hasty," she admitted. 
 "You see, I am intolerant of restraint. If you 
 only knew how I have been compelled to fight 
 for my freedom. It is a sore point with me, this 
 being told what I am to do or not do by you 
 self-constituted lords of creation. Viaburi ! 
 You stop along kitchen. No bring 'm Noa 
 Noah. And now, Mr. Sheldon, what am I to 
 do ? You don't want me here, and there 
 doesn't seem to be any place for me to go." 
 
 "That is unfair. Your being wrecked here 
 has been a godsend to me. I was very lonely 
 and very sick. I really am not certain whether 
 or not I should have pulled through had you not 
 happened along. But that is not the point. 
 Personally, purely selfishly personally, I should 
 be sorry to see you go. But I am not consider- 
 ing myself. I km considering you. It — it is 
 hardly the proper thing, you know. If I were 
 married — if there were some woman of your 
 own race here, — but as it is — " 
 
 She threw up her hands in mock despair. 
 
 "I cannot follow you," she said. "In one 
 
ADVENTURE 85 
 
 Dreath you tell me I must go, and in the next 
 breath you tell me there is no place to go and 
 that you will not permit me to go. What is a 
 poor girl to do ? " 
 
 "That's the trouble," he said helplessly. 
 
 "And the situation annoys you." 
 
 "Only for your sake." 
 
 "Then' let me save your feelings by telling 
 you that it does not annoy me at all — except for 
 the row you are making about it. I never allow 
 what can't be changed to annoy me. There is 
 no use in fighting the inevitable. Here is the 
 situation. You are here. I am here. I can't go 
 elsewhere, by your own count. You certainly 
 can't go elsewhere and leave me here alone with a 
 whole plantation and two hundred woolly canni- 
 bals on my hands. Therefore, you stay, and I 
 stay. It is very simple. Also, it is adventure. 
 And furthermore, you needn't worry for yourself. 
 I am not matrimonially inclined. I came to the 
 Solomons for a plantation, not a husband." 
 
 Sheldon flushed, but remained silent. 
 
 "I know what you are thinking," she laughed 
 gayly. "That if I were a man, you'd wring my 
 
86 ADVENTURE 
 
 neck for me. And I deserve it, too. I'm so sorry. 
 I ought not to keep on hurting your feelings." 
 
 "I'm afraid I rather invite it," he said, re- 
 lieved by the signs of the tempest subsiding. 
 
 "I have it," she announced. "Lend me a 
 gang of your boys for to-day. I'll build a grass 
 house for myself over in the far corner of the 
 compound — on piles, of course. I can move 
 in to-night. I'll be comfortable and safe. The 
 Tahitians can keep an anchor watch just as 
 aboard ship. And then I'll study cocoanut 
 planting. In return, I'll run the kitchen end of 
 your household and give you some decent food 
 to eat. And finally, I won't listen to any of 
 your protests. I know all that you are going to 
 say and offer — your giving the bungalow up to 
 me and building a grass house for yourself. 
 And I won't have it. You may as well consider 
 everything settled. On the other hand, if you 
 don't agree, I will go across the river, beyond 
 your jurisdiction, and build a village for myself 
 and my sailors, whom I shall send in the whale- 
 boat to Guvutu for provisions. And now I 
 want you to teach me billiards." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 A HARD-BITTEN GANG 
 
 JOAN took hold of the household with 
 no uncertain grip, revolutionizing things 
 till Sheldon hardly recognized the place. 
 For the first time the bungalow was clean and 
 orderly. No longer the house-boys loafed and 
 did as little as they could; while the cook com- 
 plained that "head belong him walk about too 
 much" from the strenuous course in cookery 
 which she put him through. Nor did Sheldon 
 escape being roundly lectured for his laziness in 
 eating nothing but tinned provisions. She 
 called him a muddler and a slouch, and other 
 invidious names, for his slackness and his dis- 
 regard of healthful food. 
 
 She sent her whale-boat down the coast twenty 
 miles for limes and oranges, and wanted to know 
 scathingly why said fruits had not long since 
 been planted at Berande, while he was beneath 
 
 87 
 
88 ADVENTURE 
 
 contempt because there was no kitchen garden. 
 Mummy apples, which he had regarded as weeds, 
 under her guidance appeared as appetizing 
 breakfast fruit, and, at dinner, were metamor- 
 phosed into puddings that elicited his unquali- 
 fied admiration. Bananas, foraged from the 
 bush, were served, cooked and raw, a dozen 
 different ways, each one of which he declared 
 was better than any other. She or her sailors 
 dynamited fish daily, while the Balesuna natives 
 were paid tobacco for bringing in oysters from 
 the mangrove swamps. Her achievements with 
 cocoanuts were a revelation. She taught the 
 cook how to make yeast from the milk, that, in 
 turn, raised light and airy bread. From the 
 tiptop heart of the tree she concocted a delicious 
 salad. From the milk and the meat of the nut 
 she made various sauces and dressings, sweet and 
 sour, that were served, according to prepara- 
 tion, with dishes that ranged from fish to pud- 
 ding. She taught Sheldon the superiority of 
 cocoanut cream over condensed cream, for use 
 in coffee. From the old and sprouting nuts she 
 took the solid, spongy centres and turned them 
 
ADVENTURE 89 
 
 into salads. Her forte seemed to be salads, and 
 she astonished him with the deliciousness of a 
 salad made from young bamboo shoots. Wild 
 tomatoes, which had gone to seed or been 
 remorselessly hoed out from the beginning of 
 Berande, were foraged for salads, soups, and 
 sauces. The chickens, which had always gone 
 into the bush and hidden their eggs, were given 
 laying-bins, and Joan went out herself to shoot 
 wild duck and wild pigeons for the table. 
 
 "Not that I like to do this sort of work," she 
 explained, in reference to the cookery, "but 
 because I can't get away from Dad's training." 
 
 Among other things, she burned the pesti- 
 lential hospital, quarrelled with Sheldon over the 
 deed, and, in anger, set her own men to work 
 building a new, and what she called, a decent, 
 hospital. She robbed the windows of their lawn 
 and muslin curtains, replacing them with gaudy 
 calico from, the trade-store and made herself 
 several gowns. When she wrote out a list of 
 goods and clothing for herself, to be sent down to 
 Sydney by the first steamer, Sheldon wondered 
 how long she had made up her mind to stay. 
 
90 ADVENTURE 
 
 She was certainly unlike any woman he had 
 ever known or dreamed of. So far as he was 
 concerned, she was not a woman at all. She 
 neither languished nor blandished. No feminine 
 lures were wasted on him. He might have been 
 her brother, or she his brother, for all sex had 
 to do with the strange situation. Any mere 
 polite gallantry on his part was ignored or 
 snubbed, and he had very early given up offer- 
 ing his hand to her in getting into a boat or 
 climbing over a log ; and he had to acknowledge 
 to himself that she was eminently fitted to take ' 
 care of herself. Despite his warnings about 
 crocodiles and sharks, she persisted in swimming 
 in deep water off the beach ; nor could he per- 
 suade her, when she was in the boat, to let one of 
 the sailors throw the dynamite when shooting 
 fish. She argued that she was at least a little 
 bit more intelligent than they, and that, there- 
 fore, there was less liability of an accident if she 
 did the shooting. She was, to him, the most 
 masculine and at the same time the most femi- 
 nine woman he had ever met. 
 
 A source of continual trouble between them 
 
ADVENTURE 91 
 
 was the disagreement over methods of handling 
 the black boys. She ruled by stern kindness, 
 rarely rewarding, never punishing, and he had 
 to confess that her own sailors worshipped her, 
 while the house-boys were her slaves and did 
 three times as much work for her as he had ever 
 got out of them. She quickly saw the unrest of 
 the contract laborers, and was not. blind to the 
 danger, always imminent, that both she and 
 Sheldon ran. Neither of them ever ventured 
 out without a revolver, and the sailors who 
 stood the night watches by Joan's grass house 
 were armed with rifles. But Joan insisted that 
 this reign of terror had been caused by the reign 
 of fear practised by the white men. She had 
 been brought up with the gentle Hawaiians, who 
 never were ill-treated nor roughly handled, and 
 she generalized that the Solomon islanders, under 
 kind treatment, would grow gentle. 
 
 One evening a terrific uproar arose in the 
 barracks, and Sheldon, aided by Joan's sailors, 
 succeeded in rescuing two women whom the 
 blacks were beating to death. To save them 
 from the vengeance of the blacks, they were 
 
92 ADVENTURE 
 
 guarded in the cook-house for the night. They 
 were the two women who did the cooking for 
 the laborers, and their ofFence had consisted of 
 one of them taking a bath in the big caldron in 
 which the potatoes were boiled. The blacks 
 were not outraged from the standpoint of clean- 
 liness; they often took baths in the caldrons 
 themselves. The trouble lay in that the bather 
 had been a low, degraded, wretched female, for 
 to the Solomon islanders all females are low, 
 degraded, and wretched. 
 
 Next morning, Joan and Sheldon, at breakfast, 
 were aroused by a swelling murmur of angry 
 voices. The first rule of Berande had been 
 broken. The compound had been entered with- 
 out permission or command, and all the two hun- 
 dred laborers, with the exception of the boss- 
 boys, were guilty, of the offence. They crowded 
 up, threatening and shouting, close under the 
 front veranda. Sheldon leaned over the veranda 
 railing, looking down upon them, while Joan 
 stood slightly back. When the uproar was 
 stilled, two brothers stood forth. They were 
 large men, splendidly muscled, and with faces 
 
ADVENTURE 93 
 
 unusually ferocious, even for Solomon islanders. 
 One was Carin-Jama, otherwise The Silent; 
 and the other was Bellin-Jama, The Boaster. 
 Both had served on the Queensland plantations 
 in the old days, and they were known as evil 
 characters wherever white men met and gamed. 
 
 "We fella boy we want 'm them damn two 
 black fella Mary," said Bellin-Jama. 
 
 "What do you want along black fella 
 Mary?" Sheldon asked. 
 
 "Kill 'm," said Bellin-Jama. 
 
 "What name you fella boy talk along me ?" 
 Sheldon demanded, with a show of rising anger. 
 "Big bell he ring. You no belong along here. 
 You belong along field. Bime by, big fella bell 
 he ring, you stop along kai-kai, you come talk 
 along me about two fella Mary. Now all you 
 boy get along out of here." 
 
 The gang waited to see what Bellin-Jama 
 would do, and Bellin-Jama stood still. 
 
 "Me no go," he said. 
 
 "You watch out, Bellin-Jama," Sheldon said 
 sharply, "or I send you along Tulagi one big fella 
 lashing. My word, you catch 'm strong fella." 
 
94 ADVENTURE 
 
 Bellin-Jama glared up belligerently. 
 
 "You want 'm fight," he said, putting up his 
 fists in approved, returned-Queenslander style. 
 
 Now, in the Solomons, where whites are few 
 and blacks are many, and where the whites do 
 the ruling, such an offer to fight is the deadliest 
 insult. Blacks are not supposed to dare so 
 highly as to offer to fight a white man. At the 
 best, all they can look for is to be beaten by the 
 white man. 
 
 A murmur of admiration at Bellin-Jama's 
 bravery went up from the listening blacks. 
 But Bellin-Jama's voice was still ringing in the 
 air, and the murmuring was just beginning, when 
 Sheldon cleared the rail, leaping straight down- 
 ward. From the top of the railing to the ground, 
 it was fifteen feet, and Bellin-Jama was directly 
 beneath. Sheldon's flying body struck him 
 and crushed him to earth. No blows were 
 needed to be struck. The black had been 
 knocked helpless. Joan, startled by the un- 
 expected leap, saw Carin-Jama, The Silent, reach 
 out and seize Sheldon by the throat as he was 
 halfway to his feet, while the ten-score blacks 
 
ADVENTURE 95 
 
 surged forward for the killing. Her revolver 
 was out, and Carin-Jama let go his grip, reeling 
 backward with a bullet in his shoulder. In that 
 fleeting instant of action, she had thought to 
 shoot him in the arm, which, at that short dis- 
 tance, might reasonably have been achieved. 
 But the wave of savages leaping forward had 
 changed her shot to the shoulder. It was a 
 moment when not the slightest chance could be 
 taken. 
 
 The instant his throat was released, Sheldon 
 struck out with his fist, and Carin-Jama joined 
 his brother on the ground. The mutiny was 
 quelled, and five minutes more saw the brothers 
 being carried to the hospital, and the mutineers, 
 marshalled by the gang bosses, on the way to 
 the fields. 
 
 When Sheldon came up on the veranda, he 
 found Joan collapsed on the steamer chair and 
 in tears. The sight unnerved him as the row 
 just over could not possibly have done. A 
 woman in tears was to him an embarrassing 
 situation ; and when that woman was Joan 
 Lackland, from whom he had grown to expect 
 
96 ADVENTURE 
 
 anything unexpected, he was really frightened. 
 He glanced down at her helplessly, and moistened 
 his lips. 
 
 "I want to thank you," he began. "There 
 isn't a ddubt but what you saved my life, and 
 I must say — " 
 
 She abruptly removed her hands, showing a 
 wrathful and tear-stained face, 
 
 "You brute! You coward!" she cried. 
 "You have made me shoot a man, and I never 
 shot a man in my life before." 
 
 " It's only a flesh-wound, and he isn't going to 
 die," Sheldon managed to interpolate. 
 
 "What of that ? I shot him just the same. 
 There was no need for you to jump down there 
 that way. It was brutal and cowardly." 
 
 "Oh, now I say — " he began soothingly. 
 
 "Go away. Don't you see I hate you ! hate 
 you ! Oh, won't you go away ! " 
 
 Sheldon was white with anger.' 
 
 "Then why in the name of common-sense 
 did you shoot?" he demanded. 
 
 "Be-be-because you were a white man," she 
 sobbed. "And Dad would never have left any 
 
ADVENTURE 97 
 
 white man in the lurch. But it was your fault. 
 You had no right to get yourself in such a posi- 
 tion. Besides, it wasn't necessary." 
 
 "I am afraid I don't understand," he said, 
 shortly, turning away. "We will talk it over 
 later on." 
 
 "Look how I get on with the boys," she said, 
 while he paused in the doorway, stiffly polite, 
 to listen. "There are those two sick boys I am 
 nursing. They will do anything for me when 
 they get well, and I won't have to keep them in 
 fear of their life all the time. It is not neces- 
 sary, I tell you, all this harshness and brutality. 
 What if they are cannibals ? They are human 
 beings, just like you and me, and they are amen- 
 able to reason. That is what distinguishes all 
 of us from the lower animals." 
 
 He nodded and went out. 
 
 "I suppose I've been unforgivably foolish," 
 was her greeting, when he returned several 
 hours later from a round of the plantation. 
 "I've been to the hospital, and the man is get- 
 ting along all right. It is not a serious hurt." 
 
98 ADVENTURE 
 
 Sheldon felt unaccountably pleased and happy 
 at the changed aspect of her mood. 
 
 "You see, you don't understand the situa- 
 tion," he began. " In the first place, the blacks 
 have to be ruled sternly. Kindness is all very 
 well, but you can't rule them by kindness only. 
 I accept all that you say about the Hawaiians 
 and Tahitians. You say that they can be 
 handled that way, and I believe you. I have 
 had no experience with them. But you have 
 had no experience with the blacks, and I ask 
 you to believe me. They are different from 
 your natives. You are used to Polynesians. 
 These boys are Melanesians. They're blacks. 
 They're niggers — look at their kinky hair. And 
 they're a whole lot lower than the African niggers. 
 Really, you know, there^is a vast difference. 
 
 "They possess no gratitude, no sympathy, no 
 kindliness. If you are kind to them, they 
 think you are a fool. If you are gentle with them, 
 they think you are afraid. And when they 
 think you are afraid, watch out, for they will get 
 you. Just to show you, let me state the one 
 invariable process in a black man's brain when. 
 
ADVENTURE 99 
 
 on his native heath, he encounters a stranger. 
 His first thought is one of fear. Will the 
 stranger kill him ? His next thought, seeing 
 that he is not killed is : Can he kill the stranger ? 
 There was Packard, a Colonial trader, some 
 twelve miles down the coast. He boasted that 
 he ruled by kindness and never struck a blow. 
 The result was that he did not rule at all. He 
 used to come down in his whale-boat to visit 
 Hughie and me. When his boat's crew decided 
 to go home, he had to cut his visit short to accom- 
 pany them. I remember one Sunday afternoon 
 when Packard had accepted our invitation to 
 stop to dinner. The soup was just served, 
 when riughie saw a nigger peering in through the 
 door. He went out to him, for it was a viola- 
 tion of Berande custom. Any nigger has to 
 send in word by the house-boys and to keep out- 
 side the compound. This man, who was one of 
 Packard's boat's crew, was on the veranda. 
 And he knew better, too. 'What name ?' said 
 Hughie. 'You tell 'm white man close up we 
 fella boat's crew go along. He no come now, 
 we fella boy no wait. We go.' 
 
loo ADVENTURE 
 
 "And just then Hughie fetched him a clout 
 that knocked him clean down the stairs and off 
 the veranda." 
 
 "But it was needlessly cruel," Joan objected. 
 "You wouldn't treat a white man that way." 
 
 "And that's just the point. He wasn't a 
 white man. He was a low black nigger, and 
 he was deliberately insulting, not alone his own 
 white master, but every white master in the 
 Solomons. He insulted me. He insulted 
 Hughie. He insulted Berande." 
 
 "Of course, according to your lights, to your 
 formula of the rule of the strong — " 
 
 "Yes," Sheldon interrupted, "but it was 
 according to the formula of the rule of the weak 
 that Packard ruled. And what was the result ? 
 I am still alive. ^ Packard is dead. He was 
 unswervingly kind and gentle to his boys, and 
 his boys waited till one day he was down with 
 fever. His head is over on Malaita now. 
 They carried away two whale-boats as well, 
 filled with the loot of the store. Then there 
 was Captain Mackenzie, of the ketch Minota. 
 He believed in kindness. He also contended 
 
ADVENTURE loi 
 
 that better confidence was established by carry- 
 ing no weapons. On his second trip to Malaita, 
 recruiting, he ran into Bina, which is near 
 Langa Langa. The rifles with which the boat's 
 crew should have been armed were locked up 
 in his cabin. When the whale-boat went ashore 
 after recruits, he paraded around the deck with- 
 out even a revolver on him. He was toma- 
 hawked. His head remains in Malaita. It 
 was suicide. So was Packard's finish suicide." 
 
 "I grant that precaution is necessary in deal- 
 ing with them," Joan agreed; "but I believe 
 that more satisfactory results can be obtained 
 by treating them with discreet kindness and 
 gentleness." 
 
 "And there I agree with you, but you must 
 understand one thing. Berande, bar none, is 
 by far the worst plantation in the Solomons so 
 far as the labor is concerned. And how it came 
 to be so proves your point. The previous 
 owners of Berande were not discreetly kind. 
 They were a pair of unadulterated brutes. 
 One was a down-east Yankee, as I believe they 
 are called, and the other was a guzzling German. 
 
I02 ADVENTURE 
 
 They were slave-drivers. To begin with, they 
 brought their labor from Johnny Be-blowed, 
 the most notorious recruiter in the Solomons. 
 He is working out a ten-years' sentence in Fiji 
 now, for the wanton killing of a black boy. 
 During his last days here he had made himself so 
 obnoxious that the natives on Malaita would 
 have nothing to do with him. The only way he 
 could get recruits was by hurrying to the spot 
 whenever a murder or series of murders occurred. 
 The murderers were usually only too willing to 
 sign on and get away to escape vengeance. 
 Down here, they call such escapes 'pier-head 
 jumps.' There is suddenly a roar from the 
 beach, and a nigger runs down to the water 
 pursued by clouds of spears and arrows. Of 
 course, Johnny Be-blowed's whale-boat is lying 
 ready to pick him up. In his last days Johnny 
 got nothing but pier-head jumps. 
 
 "And the first owners of Berande bought his 
 recruits — a hard-bitten gang of murderers. 
 They were all five-year boys. You see, the 
 recruiter has the advantage over a boy when he 
 makes a pier-head jump. He could sign him 
 
ADVENTURE 103 
 
 on for ten years did the law permit. Well, 
 that's the gang of murderers we've got on our 
 hands now. Of course, some are dead, some 
 have been killed, and there are others serving 
 sentences at Tulagi. Very little clearing did 
 those first owners do, and less planting. It was 
 war all the time. They had one manager 
 killed. One of the partners had his shoulder 
 slashed nearly off by a cane-knife. The other 
 was speared on two different occasions. Both 
 were bullies, wherefore there was a streak of 
 cowardice in them, and in the end they had to 
 give up. They were chased away — literally 
 chased away — by their own niggers. And 
 along came poor Hughie and me, two new chums, 
 to take hold of that hard-bitten gang. We did 
 not know the situation, and we had bought 
 Berande, and there was nothing to do but hang 
 on and muddle through somehow. 
 
 "At first we made the mistake of indiscreet 
 kindness. We tried to rule by persuasion and 
 fair treatment. The niggers concluded that we 
 were afraid. I blush to think of what fools 
 we were in those first days. We were imposed 
 
104 ADVENTURE 
 
 on, and threatened and insulted ; and we put up 
 with it, hoping our square dealing would soon 
 naend things. Instead of which, everything went 
 from bad to worse. Then came the day when 
 Hughie reprimanded one of the boys, and was 
 nearly killed by the gang. The only thing that 
 saved him was the number on top of him, which 
 enabled me to reach the spot in time. 
 
 "Then began the rule of the strong hand. It 
 was either that or quit, and we had sunk about 
 all our money into the venture, and we could not 
 quit. And besides, our pride was involved. 
 We had started out to do something, and we were 
 so made that we just had to go on with it. It 
 has been a hard fight, for we were, and are to this 
 day, considered the worst plantation in the 
 Solomons from the standpoint of labor. Do you 
 know, we have been unable to get white men in. 
 We've offered the managership to half a dozen. 
 I won't say they were afraid, for they were not. 
 But they did not consider it healthy — at least 
 that is the way it was put by the last one who 
 declined our offer. So Hughie and I did the 
 managing ourselves." 
 
ADVENTURE 105 
 
 "And when he died you were prepared to go 
 on all alone !" Joan cried, with shining eyes. 
 
 "I thought I'd muddle through. And now, 
 Miss Lackland, please be charitable when I seem 
 harsh, and remember that the situation is unpar- 
 alleled down here. We've got a bad crowd, 
 and we're making them work. You've been over 
 the plantation, and you ought to know. And I 
 assure you that there are no better three-and-four- 
 years-old trees on any other plantation in the 
 Solomons. We have worked steadily to change 
 matters for the better. We've been slowly get- 
 ting in new labor. That is why we bought the 
 Jessie. We wanted to select our own labor. In 
 another year the time will be up for most of 
 the original gang — you see, they were recruited 
 during the first year of Berande, and their con- 
 tracts expire on different months. Naturally, 
 they have contaminated the new boys to a certain 
 extent ; but that can soon be remedied, and then 
 Berande will be a respectable plantation." 
 
 Joan nodded but remained silent. She was too 
 occupied in glimpsing the vision of the one lone 
 white man as she had first seen him, helpless from 
 
io6 ADVENTURE 
 
 fever, a collapsed wraith in a steamer chair, who, 
 up to the last heart-beat, by some strange al- 
 chemy of race, was pledged to mastery. 
 
 "It is a pity," she said. "But the white man 
 has to rule, I suppose." 
 
 "I don't like it," Sheldon assured her. "To 
 save my life I can't imagine how I ever came here. 
 But here I am, and I can't run away." 
 
 "Blind destiny of race," she said, faintly smil- 
 ing. "We whites have been land-robbers and 
 sea-robbers from remotest time. It is in our 
 blood, I guess, and we can't get away from it." 
 
 "I never thought about it so abstractly," he 
 confessed. "I've been too busy puzzling over 
 why I came here." 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LOCAL COLOR 
 
 AT sunset a small ketch fanned in to an- 
 chorage, and a little later the skipper 
 came ashore. He was a soft-spoken, 
 gentle-voiced young fellow of twenty, but he 
 won Joan's admiration in advance when Sheldon 
 told her that he ran the ketch all alone with a 
 black crew from Malaita. And Romance lured 
 and beckoned before Joan's eyes when she 
 learned he was Christian Young, a Norfolk 
 islander, but a direct descendant of John Young, 
 one of the original Bounty mutineers. The 
 blended Tahitian and English blood showed in 
 his soft eyes and tawny skin, but the English 
 hardness seemed to have disappeared. Yet the 
 hardness was there, and it was what enabled him 
 to run his ketch single-handed and to wring a live- 
 lihood out of the fighting Solomons. 
 Joan's unexpected presence embarrassed him, 
 
 107 
 
io8 ADVENTURE 
 
 until she herself put him out at his ease by a 
 frank, comradely manner that offended Sheldon's 
 sense of the fitness of things feminine. News 
 from the world Young had not, but he was filled 
 with news of the Solomons. Fifteen boys had 
 stolen rifles and run away into the bush from 
 Lunga Plantation, which was farther east on the 
 Guadalcanar coast. And from the bush they 
 had sent word that they were coming back to 
 wipe out the three white men in charge, while 
 two of the three white men, in turn, were hunting 
 them through the bush. There was a strong 
 possibility, Young volunteered, that if they were 
 not caught, they might circle around and tap 
 the coast at Berande in order to steal or capture 
 a whale-boat. 
 
 "I forgot to tell you that your trader at Ugi 
 has been murdered," he said to Sheldon. " Five 
 big canoes came down from Port Adams. They 
 landed in the night-time and caught Oscar 
 asleep. What they didn't steal they burned. 
 The Flihberty-Gibhet got the news at Mboli Pass 
 and ran down to Agi. I was at Mboli when the 
 news came." 
 
ADVENTURE 109 
 
 "I think I'll have to abandon Ugi," Sheldon 
 remarked. 
 
 "It's the second trader you've lost there in a 
 year," Young concurred. " To make it safe, there 
 ought to be two white men at least. Those 
 Malaita canoes are always raiding down that way, 
 and you know what that Port Adams lot is. 
 I've got a dog for you. Tommy Jones sent it up 
 from Neal Island. He said he'd promised it 
 to you. It's a first-class nigger-chaser. Hadn't 
 been on board two minutes when he had my 
 whole boat's crew in the rigging. Tommy calls 
 him Satan." 
 
 " I've wondered several times why you had no 
 dogs here," Joan said. 
 
 "The trouble is to keep them. They're al- 
 ways eaten by the crocodiles." 
 
 "Jack Henley was killed at Marovo Lagoon two 
 months ago," Young announced in his mild voice. 
 "The news just came down on the Apostle.''^ 
 
 "Where is Marovo Lagoon t " Joan asked. 
 
 "New Georgia, a couple of hundred miles to the 
 westward," Sheldon answered. "Bougainville 
 lies just beyond." 
 
no ADVENTURE 
 
 "His own house-boys did it," Young went on ; 
 "but they were put up to it by the Marovo 
 natives. His Santa Cruz boat's crew escaped 
 in the whale-boat to Chpiseul, and Mather, in the 
 Lily, sailed over to Marovo. He burned a vil- 
 lage, and got Hanley's head back. He found it in 
 one of the houses where the niggers had it drying. 
 And that's all the news I've got, except that 
 there's a lot of new Lee-Enfields loose on the 
 eastern end of Ysabel. Nobody knows how the 
 natives got them. The government ought to 
 investigate. Ah — oh, yes, — a war vessel's in 
 the group, the Cambrian. She burned three vil- 
 lages at Bina — on account of the Minota, you 
 know — and shelled the bush. Then she went to 
 Sio to straighten out things there." 
 
 The conversation became general, and just 
 before Young left to go on board, Joan asked : 
 
 "How can you manage all alone, Mr. Young ?" 
 
 His large, almost girlish eyes rested on her for 
 a moment before he replied, and then it was in 
 the softest and gentlest of voices. 
 
 "Oh, I get along pretty well with them. Of 
 course, there is a bit of trouble once in a while, 
 
ADVENTURE in 
 
 but that must be expected. You must never 
 let them think you are afraid. I've been afraid 
 plenty of times, but they never knew it." 
 
 "You would think he wouldn't strike a mos- 
 quito that was biting him," Sheldon said, when 
 Young had gone on board. "All the Norfolk 
 islanders that have descended from the Bounty 
 crowd are that way. But look at Young. Only 
 three years ago, when he first got the Minerva, 
 he was lying in Suu, on Malaita. There are a 
 lot of returned Queenslanders there — a rough 
 crowd. They planned to get his head. The 
 son of their chief, old One-Eyed Billy, had re- 
 cruited on Lunga and died of dysentery. That 
 meant that a white' man's head was owing to 
 Suu — any white man, it didn't matter who, so 
 long as they got the head. And Young was only 
 a lad and they made sure to get his easily. They 
 decoyed his whale-boat ashore with a promise 
 of recruits and killed all hands. At the same 
 instant the Suu gang that was on board the 
 Minerva jumped Young. He was just preparing 
 a dynamite stick for fish, and he lighted it and 
 tossed it in amongst them. One can't get him to 
 
112 ADVENTURE 
 
 talk about it, but the fuse was short, the sur- 
 vivors leaped overboard, while he slipped his 
 anchor and got away. They've got one hundred 
 fathoms of shell money on his head now, which is 
 worth one hundred pounds sterling. Yet he goes 
 into Suu regularly. He was there a short time 
 ago, returning thirty boys from Cape Marsh — 
 that's the Fulcrum Brothers' plantation." 
 
 "At any rate, his news to-night has given me a 
 better insight into the life down here," Joan said. 
 "And it is colorful life, to say the least. The 
 Solomons ought to be printed red on the charts — 
 and yellow, too, for the diseases." 
 
 "The Sqlomons are not always like this," Shel- 
 don answered. "Of course, Berande is the worst 
 plantation, and everything it gets is the worst. I 
 doubt if ever there was a worse run of sickness 
 than we were just getting over when you arrived. 
 Just as luck would have it, the Jessie caught the 
 contagion as well. Berande has been very unfor- 
 tunate. All the old-timers shake their heads 
 at it. They say it has what you Americans call 
 a hoodoo on it." 
 
 " Berande will succeed," Joan said stoutly. " I 
 
ADVENTURE 113 
 
 like to laugh at superstition. You'll pull through 
 and come out the big end of the horn. The 
 ill-luck can't last forever. I am afraid, though, 
 the Solomons is not a white man's climate." 
 
 "It will be, though. Give us fifty years, and 
 when all the bush is cleared off back to the moun- 
 tains, fever will be stamped out, everything will 
 be far healthier. There will be cities and towns 
 here, for there's an immense amount of good land 
 going to waste." 
 
 "But it will never become a white man's 
 climate, in spite of all that," Joan reiterated. 
 "The white men will always be unable to per- 
 form the manual labor." 
 
 "That is true." 
 
 "It will mean slavery," she dashed on. 
 
 "Yes, like all the tropics. The black, the 
 brown, and the yellow will have to do the work, 
 managed by the white men. The black labor is 
 too wasteful, however, and in time Chinese or 
 Indian coolies will be imported. The planters 
 are already considering the matter. I, for one, 
 am heartily sick of black labor." 
 
 "Then the blacks will die off ?" 
 
114 ADVENTURE 
 
 Sheldon shrugged his shoulders and retorted : 
 "Yes, like the North American Indian, who was 
 a far nobler type than theMelanesian. The world 
 is only so large, you know, and it is filling up — " 
 "And the unfit must perish ?" 
 "Precisely so. The unfit must perish." • 
 In the morning Joan was roused by a great 
 row and hullabaloo. Her first act was to 
 reach for her revolver, but when she heard 
 Noa Noah, who was on guard, laughing outside, 
 she knew there was no danger and went out 
 to see the fun. Captain Young had landed 
 Satan at the moment. when the bridge-building 
 gang had started along the beach. Satan was 
 big and black, short-haired and muscular, and 
 weighed fully seventy pounds. Hd did not love 
 the blacks. Tommy Jones had trained him well, 
 tying him up daily for several hours and telling off 
 one or two black boys at a time to tease him. So 
 Satan had it in for the whole black race, and the 
 second after he landed on the beach the bridge- 
 building gang was stampeding over the compound 
 fence and swarming up the cocoanut palrxis. 
 "Good morning," Sheldon called from the 
 
ADVENTURE 115 
 
 veranda, " and what do you think of the nigger- 
 chaser?" 
 
 "I'm thinking we have a task before us to 
 train him into the house-boys," she called back. 
 
 "And to your Tahitians, too. Look out, 
 Noah! Run for it!" 
 
 Satan, having satisfied himself that the tree 
 perches were unassailable, was charging straight 
 for the big Tahitian. 
 
 But Noah stood his ground, though some- 
 what irresolutely, and Satan, to every one's 
 surprise, danced and frisked about him with 
 laughing eyes and wagging tail. 
 ',. "Now that is what I might call a proper 
 dog," was Joan's comment. "He is at least 
 wiser than you, Mr. Sheldon. He didn't re- 
 quire, any teaching to recognize the difference 
 between a Tahitian and a black boy. What 
 do you think, Noah ? Why don't he bite you ? 
 He sawee you Tahitian, eh ?" 
 
 Noa Noah shook his head and grinned. 
 
 "He no sawee me Tahitian," he explained. 
 "He sawee me wear pants all the same white 
 
 man." 
 
ii6 ADVENTURE 
 
 "You'll have to give him a course in Sartor 
 Resartus," Sheldon laughed, as he came down 
 and began to make friends with Satan. 
 
 It chanced, just then, that Adamu Adam 
 and Matauare, two of Joan's sailors, entered 
 the compound from the far side-gate. They 
 had been down to the Balesuna, making an 
 alligator trap, and, instead of trousers, were 
 clad in lava-lavas that flapped gracefully about 
 their stalwart limbs. Satan saw them and 
 advertised his find by breaking away from 
 Sheldon's hands and charging. 
 
 "No got pants," Noah announced, with a grin 
 that broadened as Adamu Adam took to flight. 
 
 He climbed up the platform that supported 
 the galvanized-iron tanks which held the water 
 collected from the roof. Foiled here, Satan 
 turned and charged back on Matauare. 
 
 "Run, Matauare! Run!" Joan called. 
 
 But he held his ground and waited the dog. 
 
 "He is The Fearless One — that is what his 
 name means," Joan explained to Sheldon. 
 
 The Tahitian watched Satan, coolly, and 
 when that sanguine-mouthed creature lifted 
 
ADVENTURE 117 
 
 into the air in the final leap, the man's hand 
 shot out. It was a fair grip on the lower jaw, 
 and Satan described a half-circle and was flung 
 to the rear, turning over in the air and falling 
 heavily on his back. Three times he leapeid, 
 and three times that grip on his jaw flung him 
 to defeat. Then he contented himself with 
 trotting at Matauare's heels, eying him and 
 sniffing him suspiciously. 
 
 "It's all right, Satan; it's all right," Sheldon 
 assured him. "That good fella belong along 
 me." 
 
 But Satan dogged the Tahitian's movements 
 for a full hour before he made up his mind 
 that the man was an appurtenance of the place. 
 Then he turned his attention to the three house- 
 boys, cornering Ornfiri in the kitchen and 
 rushing him against the hot stove, stripping 
 the lava-lava from Lalaperu when that excited 
 youth climbed a veranda post, and following 
 Viaburi on top the billiard-table where the 
 battle raged until Joan managed a rescue. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 AS BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN 
 
 IT was Satan's inexhaustible energy and 
 good spirits that most impressed them. 
 His teeth seemed perpetually to ache with 
 desire, and in lieu of black legs he husked the 
 cocoanuts that fell from the trees in the com- 
 pound, kept the enclosure clear of intruding 
 hens, and made a hostile acquaintance with 
 every boss-boy who came to report. He was 
 unable to forget the torment of his puppyhood, 
 wherein everlasting hatred of the black had 
 been woven into the fibres of consciousness ; 
 and such a terror did he make himself that 
 Sheldon was forced to shut him up in the 
 living room when, for any reason, strange 
 natives were permitted in the compound. This 
 always hurt Satan's feelings and fanned his 
 wrath so that even the house-boys had to watch 
 out for him when he was first released. 
 
 ii8 
 
ADVENTURE 119 
 
 Christian Young sailed away in the Minerva, 
 carrying an invitation (that would be delivered 
 nobody knew when) to Tommy Jones to drop 
 in at Berande the next time he was passing. 
 
 "What are your plans when you get to 
 Sydney?" Sheldon asked, that night, at 
 dinner, 
 
 "First I've heard that I'm going to Syd- 
 ^^Y" Joan retorted. "I suppose you've re- 
 ceived information, by bush-telegraph, that 
 that third assistant understrapper and ex-sailor- 
 man at Tulagi is going to deport me as an 
 undesirable immigrant." 
 
 "Oh, no, nothing of the sort, I assure you," 
 Sheldon began with awkward haste, fearful of 
 having offended, though he knew not how. 
 "I was just wondering, that was all. You see, 
 with the loss of the schooner and ■^- and all 
 the rest — you understand — I was thinking 
 that if — a — if — hang it all, until you could 
 communicate with your friends, my agents at 
 Sydney could adva:nce you a loan, temporary 
 you see, why I'd be only too glad and all the 
 rest, you know. The proper — " 
 
I20 ADVENTURE 
 
 But his jaw dropped and he regarded her 
 irritably and with apprehension. 
 
 "What is the matter?" he demanded, with 
 a show of heat. "What have I done now ?" 
 
 Joan's eyes were bright with battle, the curve 
 of her lips sharp with mockery. 
 
 "Certainly not the unexpected," she said 
 quietly. "Merely ignored me in your ordi- 
 nary, everyday, man-god, superior fashion. 
 Naturally it counted for nothing, my telling 
 you that I had no idea of going to Sydney. 
 Go to Sydney I must, because you, in your 
 superior wisdom, have so decreed." 
 
 She paused and looked at him curiously, as 
 though he were some strange breed of animal. 
 
 "Of course I am grateful for your offer of 
 assistance ; but even that is no salve to wounded 
 pride. For that matter, it is no more than 
 one white man should expect from another. 
 Shipwrecked mariners are always helped along 
 their way. Only this particular mariner doesn't 
 need any help. Furthermore, this mariner is 
 not going to Sydney, thank you." 
 
 "But what do you intend to do ?" 
 
ADVENTURE 121 
 
 "Find some spot where I shall escape the 
 indignity of being patronized and bossed by 
 the superior sex." 
 
 "Come now, that is putting it a bit too 
 strongly." Sheldon laughed, but the strain in 
 his voice destroyed the effect of spontaneity. 
 "You know yourself how impossible the situa- 
 tion is." 
 
 "I know nothing of the sort, sir. And if it 
 is impossible, well, haven't I achieved it ? " 
 
 "But it cannot continue. Really — " 
 
 "Oh, yes, it can. Having achieved it, I can 
 go on achieving it. I intend to remain in the 
 Solomons, but not on Berande. To-morrow I 
 am going to take the whale-boat over to Pari- 
 Sulay. I was talking with Captain Young 
 about it. He says there are at least four hun- 
 dred acres, and every foot of it good for plant- 
 ing. Being an island, he says I won't have to 
 bother about wild pigs destroying the young 
 trees. All I'll have to do is to keep the weeds 
 hoed until the trees come into bearing. First, 
 I'll buy the island; next, get forty or fifty 
 recruits and start clearing and planting; and 
 
122 ADVENTURE 
 
 at the same time I'll run up a bungalow; and 
 then you'll be relieved of my embarrassing 
 presence — now don't say that it isn't." 
 
 "It is embarrassing," he said bluntly. "But 
 you refuse to see my point of view, so there is 
 no use in discussing it. Now please forget all 
 about it, and consider me at your service con- 
 cerning this — this project -of yours. I know 
 more about cocoanut-planting than you do. 
 You speak like a capitalist. I don't know how 
 much money you have, but I don't fancy you 
 are rolling in wealth, as you Americans say. 
 But I do know what it costs to clear land. 
 Suppose the government sells you Pari-Sulay at 
 a pound an acre ; clearing will cost you at least 
 four pounds more; that is five pounds for four 
 hundred acres, or, say ten thousand dollars. 
 Have you that much ?" 
 
 She was keenly interested, and he could see 
 that the previous clash between them was 
 already forgotten. Her disappointment was 
 plain as she confessed : 
 
 "No; I haven't quite eight thousand dol- 
 lars." 
 
ADVENTURE 123 
 
 "Then here's another way of looking at it: 
 You'll need, as you said, at least fifty boys. 
 Not counting premiums, their wages are thirty 
 dollars a year." 
 
 "I pay my'Tahitians fifteen a month," she 
 interpolated. 
 
 "They won't do on straight plantation work. 
 But to return. The wages of fifty boys each 
 year will come to three hundred pounds — 
 that is, fifteen hundred dollars. Very well. 
 It will be seven years before your trees begin 
 to bear. Seven times fifteen hundred is ten 
 thousand five hundred dollars — more than 
 you possess, and all eaten up by the boys' wages, 
 with nothing to pay for bungalow, building, 
 tools, quinine, trips to Sydney, and so forth." 
 
 Sheldon shook his head gravely. "You'll 
 have to abandon the idea." 
 
 "But I won't go to Sydney," she cried. 
 VI simply won't. I'll buy in to the extent of 
 my money as a small partner in some other 
 plantation. Let me buy in in Berande ?" 
 
 "Heaven forbid!" he cried in such genuine 
 dismay that she broke into hearty laughter. 
 
124 ADVENTURE 
 
 "There, I won't tease you. Really, you 
 know, I'm not accustomed to forcing my 
 presence where it is not desired. Yes, yes ; I 
 know you're just aching to point out that I've 
 forced myself upon you ever since I landed, 
 only you are too polite to say so. Yet as you 
 said yourself, it was impossible for me to go 
 away, so I had to stay. You wouldn't let me 
 go to Tulagi. You compelled me to force 
 myself upon you. But I won't buy in as part- 
 ner with any one. I'll buy Pari-Sulay, but I'll 
 put only ten boys on it and clear slowly. Also, 
 I'll invest in some old ketch and take out a 
 trading license. For that matter, I'll go re- 
 cruiting on Malaita." 
 
 She looked for protest, and found it in Shel- 
 don's clenched hand and in every line of his 
 clean-cut face. 
 
 "Go ahead and say it," she challenged. 
 "Please don't mind me. I'm — I'm getting 
 used to it, you know. Really I am." 
 
 "I wish I were a woman so as to tell you how 
 preposterously insane and impossible it is," he 
 blurted out. 
 
ADVENTURE 125 
 
 She surveyed him with deliberation, dnd 
 said: 
 
 "Better than that, you are a man. So there 
 is nothing to prevent your telling me, for I 
 demand to be considered as a man. I didn't 
 come down here to trail my woman's skirts 
 over the Solomons. Please forget that I am 
 accidentally anything else than a man with a 
 man's living to make." 
 
 Inwardly Sheldon fumed and fretted. Was 
 she making game of him ? Or did there lurk 
 in her the insidious unhealthfulness of unwoman- 
 liness ? Or was it merely a case of blank, star- 
 ing, sentimental, idiotic innocence f 
 
 "I have told you," he began stiffly, "that 
 recruiting on Malaita is impossible for a woman, 
 and that is all I care to say — or dare." 
 
 "And I tell you, in turn, that it is nothing 
 of the sort. I've sailed the Miele here, master, 
 if you please, all the way from Tahiti — even 
 if I did lose her, which was the fault of your 
 Admiralty charts. I am a navigator, and that 
 Is more than your Solomons captains are. 
 Captain Young told me all about it. And I am 
 
126 ADVENTURE 
 
 a seaman — a better seaman than you, when 
 it comes right down to it, and you know it. I 
 can shoot. I am not a fool. I can take care 
 of myself. And I shall most certainly buy a 
 ketch, run her myself, and go recruiting on 
 Malaita." 
 
 Sheldon made a hopeless gesture. 
 
 "That's right," she rattled on. "Wash your 
 hands of me. But as Von used to say, 'You 
 just watch my smoke !'" 
 
 "There's no use in discussing it. Let us 
 have some music." 
 
 He arose and went over to the big phono- 
 graph; but before the disk started, and while 
 he was winding the machine, he heard her 
 saying : 
 
 "I suppose you've been accustomed to Jane 
 Eyres all your life. That's why you don't 
 understand me. Come on, Satan; let's leave 
 him to his old music." 
 
 He watched her morosely and without inten- 
 tion of speaking, till he saw her take a rifle 
 from the stand, examine the magazine, and 
 start for the door. 
 
ADVENTURE 127 
 
 "Where are you going?" he asked peremp- 
 torily. 
 
 "As between man and woman," she answered, 
 "it would be too terribly — or — indecent for 
 you to tell me why I shouldn't go alligatoring. 
 Good night. Sleep well." 
 
 He shut off the phonograph with a snap, 
 started toward the door after her, then abruptly 
 flung himself into a chair. 
 
 "You're hoping a 'gator catches me, aren't 
 you ? " she called from the veranda, and as she 
 went down the steps her rippling laughter 
 drifted tantalizingly back through the wide 
 doorway. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 A MESSAGE FROM BOUCHER 
 
 THE next day Sheldon was left all alone. 
 Joan had gone exploring Pari-Sulay, and 
 was not to be expected back until the 
 late afternoon. Sheldon was vaguely oppressed 
 by his loneliness, and several heavy squalls 
 during the afternoon brought him frequently on 
 to the veranda, telescope in hand, to scan the 
 sea anxiously for the whale-boat. Between- 
 whiles he scowled over the plantation account- 
 books, made rough estimates, added and 
 balanced, and scowled the harder. The loss 
 of the Jessie had hit Berande severely. Not 
 alone was his capital depleted by the amount 
 of her value, but her earnings were no longer 
 to be reckoned on, and it was her earnings that 
 largely paid the running expenses of the planta- 
 tion. 
 
 'Poor old Hughie," he muttered aloud, 
 128 
 
 "1 
 
ADVENTURE 129 
 
 once. "I'm glad you didn't live to see it, old 
 man. What a cropper, what a cropper." 
 
 Between squalls the Flibberty-Gibbet ran into 
 anchorage, and her skipper, Pete Oleson (brother 
 to the Oleson of the Jessie), ancient, grizzled, 
 wild-eyed, emaciated by fever, dragged his 
 weary frame up the veranda steps and col- 
 lapsed in a steamer chair. Whiskey and soda 
 kept him going while he made report and turned 
 in his accounts. 
 
 "You're rotten with fever," Sheldon said. 
 "Why don't you run down to Sydney for a 
 blow of decent climate ? " 
 
 The old skipper shook his head. 
 
 "I can't. I've ben in the Islands too long. 
 I'd die. The fever comes out worse down 
 there." 
 
 "Kill or cure," Sheldon counselled. 
 
 "It's straight kill for me. I tried it three 
 years ago. The cool weather put me on my 
 back before I landed. They carried me ashore 
 and into hospital. I was unconscious one 
 stretch for two weeks. After that the doctors 
 sent me back to the Islands — said it was the 
 
I30 ADVENTURE 
 
 only thing that would save me. Well, I'm 
 still alive. But I'm too soaked with fever. A 
 month in Australia would finish me." 
 
 "But what are you going to do?" Sheldon 
 queried. "You can't stay here until you die." 
 
 "That's all that's left to me. I'd like to 
 go back to the old country, but I couldn't 
 sta,nd it. I'll last longer here, and here I stay 
 until I peg out; but I wish to God I'd never 
 seen the Solomons, that's all." 
 
 He declined to sleep ashore, took his orders, 
 and went back on board the cutter. A lurid 
 sunset was blotted out by the heaviest squall 
 of the day, and Sheldon watched the whale- 
 boat arrive in the thick of it. As the spritsail 
 was taken in and the boat headed on to the 
 beach, he was aware of a distinct hurt at sight 
 of Joan at the steering-oar, standing erect and 
 swaying her strength to it as she resisted the 
 pressures that tended to throw the craft broad- 
 side in the surf. Her Tahitians leaped out and 
 rushed the boat high up the beach, and she 
 led her bizarre following through the gate of 
 the compound. 
 
ADVENTURE 131 
 
 The first drops of rain were driving like 
 hailstones, the tall cocoanut plams were bend- 
 ing and writhing in the grip of the wind, while 
 the thick cloud-mass of the squall turned the 
 brief tropic twilight abruptly to night. 
 
 Quite unconsciously the brooding anxiety of 
 the afternoon slipped from Sheldon, and he 
 felt strangely cheered at the sight of her, run- 
 ning up the steps, laughing, face flushed, hair 
 flying, her breast heaving from the violence of 
 her late exertions. 
 
 "Lovely, perfectly lovely — Pari-Sulay," she 
 panted. "I shall buy it. I'll write to the 
 Commissioner to-night. And the site for the 
 bungalow — I've selected it already — is won- 
 derful. You must come over some day and advise 
 me. You won't mind my staying here until I 
 can get settled ? Wasn't that squall beautiful ! 
 And I suppose I'm late for dinner. I'll run 
 and get clean and be with you in a minute." 
 
 And in the brief interval of her absence he 
 found himself walking about the big living 
 room and impatiently and with anticipation 
 awaiting her coming. 
 
132 ADVENTURE 
 
 "Do you know, I'm never going to squabble 
 with you again," he announced, when they 
 were seated. 
 
 "Squabble!" was the retort. "It's such a 
 sordid word. It sounds cheap and nasty. I 
 think it's much nicer to quarrel." 
 
 "Call it what you please, but we won't do 
 it any more, will we ?" He cleared his throat 
 nervously, for her eyes advertised the imme- 
 diate beginning of hostilities. "I beg your 
 pardon," he hurried on. " I should have spoken 
 for myself. What I mean is that I refuse to 
 quarrel. You have the most horrible way, 
 without uttering a word, of making me play 
 the fool. Why, I began with the kindliest 
 intentions, and here I am now — " 
 
 "Making nasty remarks," she completed for 
 him. 
 
 "It's the way you have of catching me up," 
 he complained. 
 
 "Why I never said a word. I was merely 
 sitting here, being sweetly lured on by promises 
 of peace on earth and all the rest of it, when 
 suddenly you begin to call me names." 
 
ADVENTURE 133 
 
 "Hardly that, I am sure." 
 
 "Well, you said I was horrible, or that I 
 had a horrible way about me, whjch is the 
 same thing. I wish my bungalow were up. 
 I'd move to-morrow." 
 
 But her twitching lips belied her words, and 
 the next moment the man was more uncomfort- 
 able than ever, being made so by her laughter. 
 
 "I was only teasing you. Honest Injun. 
 And if you don't laugh, I'll suspect you of 
 being in a temper with me. That's right, 
 laugh. But don't — " she added in alarm, 
 "don't, if it hurts you. You look as though 
 you had a toothache. There, there; don't say 
 it. You know you promised not to quarrel, 
 while I have the privilege of going on being as 
 hateful as I please. And to begin with, there's 
 the Flihberty-Gibbet. I didn't know she was so 
 large a cutter. But she's in disgraceful condi- 
 tion. Her rigging is something queer, and the 
 next sharp squall will bring her head-gear all 
 about the shop. I watched Noa Noah's face 
 as we sailed past. He didn't say anything. 
 He just' sneered. And I don't blame him." 
 
134 ADVENTURE 
 
 "Her skipper's rotten bad with fever," Shel- 
 don explained. "And he had to drop his mate 
 off to take hold of things at Ugi — that's where 
 I lost Oscar, my trader. And you know what 
 sort of sailors the niggers are." 
 
 She nodded her head judicially, and while 
 she seemed to debate a weighty judgment he 
 asked for a second helping of tinned beef, 
 not because he was hungry, but because he 
 wanted to watch her slim, firm fingers, naked 
 of jewels and banded metals, while his eyes 
 pleasured in the swell of the forearm, appear- 
 ing from under the sleeve and losing identity 
 in the smooth, round wrist undisfigured by the 
 netted veins that come to youth when youth is 
 gone. The fingers were brown with tan and 
 looked exceedingly boyish. Then, and without 
 effort, the concept came to him. Yes, that was 
 it. He had stumbled upon the clew to her 
 tantalizing personality. The fingers, sunburned 
 and boyish, told the story. No wonder she 
 had exasperated him so frequently. He had 
 tried to treat with her as a woman, when she 
 was not a woman. She was a mere girl, and 
 
ADVENTURE 135 
 
 a boyish girl at that, with sunburned fingers 
 that delighted in doing what boys' fingers did, 
 with a body and muscles that liked swimming 
 and violent endeavor of all sorts, with a mind 
 that was daring but that dared no farther 
 than boys' adventures and that delighted in 
 rifles and revolvers, Stetson hats, and a sexless 
 camaraderie with men. 
 
 Somehow, as he pondered and watched her, it 
 seemed as if he sat in church, at home, listening 
 to the choir-boys chanting. She reminded him 
 of those boys, or their voices, rather. The same 
 sexless quality was there. In the body of her 
 she was woman. In the mind of her she had 
 not grown up. She had not been exposed to 
 ripening influences of that sort. She had had 
 no mother. Von, her father, native servants, 
 and rough island life had constituted her training. 
 Horses and rifles had been her toys, camp and 
 trail her"nursery. From what she had told him, 
 her seminary days had been an exile, devoted to 
 study and to ceaseless longing for the wild riding 
 and swimming of Hawaii. A boy's training, and 
 a boy's poipt of view ! That explained her chafe 
 
136 ADVENTURE 
 
 at petticoats, her revolt at what was only de- 
 cently conventional. Some day she would grow 
 up, but as yet she was only in the process. 
 
 Well, there was only one thing for him to do. 
 He must meet her on her own basis of boyhood 
 and not make the mistake of treating her as a 
 woman. He wondered if he could love the 
 woman she would be when her nature awoke; 
 and he wondered if he could love her just as she 
 was and himself wake her up. After all, what- 
 ever it was, she had come to fill quite a large 
 place in his life, as he had discovered that after- 
 noon while scanning the sea between the squalls. 
 Then he remembered the accounts of Berande, 
 and the cropper that was coming, and scowled. 
 
 He became aware that she was speaking. 
 
 "I beg pardon," he said. "What's that you 
 were saying ?" 
 
 "You weren't listening to a word — I knew it," 
 she chided. "I was saying that the condition 
 of the Flibberty-Gibbet was disgraceful, and that 
 to-morrow, when you've told the skipper and not 
 hurt his feelings, I am going to take my men out 
 and give her an overhauling. We'll scrub her 
 
ADVENTURE 137 
 
 bottom, too. Why, there's whiskers on her cop- 
 per four inches long. I saw it, when she rolled. 
 Don't forget, I'm going cruising on the Flibberty 
 some day, even if I haye to run away with her." 
 
 While at their coffee, on the veranda, Satan 
 raised a commotion in the compound near the 
 beach gate, and Sheldon finally rescued a mauled 
 and frightened black and dragged him on the 
 porch for interrogation. 
 
 "What fella marster you belong?" he de- 
 manded. "What name you come along this 
 fella place sun he go down .'"' 
 
 "Me b'long Boucher. Too many boy belong 
 along Port Adams stop along my fella marster. 
 Too much walk about." 
 
 The black drew a scrap of note-paper from 
 under his belt and passed it over. Sheldon 
 scanned it hurriedly. 
 
 "It's from Boucher," he explained, "the fellow 
 who took Packard's place. Packard was the one 
 I told you about who was killed by his boat's 
 crew. He says that Port Adams crowd is out — 
 fifty of them, in big canoes — and camping on 
 his beach. They've killed half a dozen of his 
 
138 ADVENTURE 
 
 pigs already, and seem to be looking for trouble. 
 And he's afraid they may connect with the fif- 
 teen runaways from Lunga." 
 
 "In which case ?" she queried. 
 
 "In which case Billy Pape will be compelled 
 to send Boucher's successor. It's Pape's sta- 
 tion, you know. I wish I knew what to do. I 
 don't like to leave you here alone." 
 
 "Take me along then." 
 
 He smiled and shook his head. 
 
 "Then you'd better take my men along," 
 she advised. "They're good shots, and they're 
 not afraid of anything — except Utami, and he's 
 afraid of ghosts." 
 
 The big bell was rung, and fifty black boys 
 carried the whale-boat down to the water. The 
 regular boat's crew manned her, and Matauare 
 and three other Tahitians, belted with cartridges 
 and armed with rifles, sat in the sternsheets 
 where Sheldon stood at the steering-oar. 
 
 "My, I wish I could go with you," Joan said 
 wistfully, as the boat shoved off. 
 
 Sheldon shook his head. 
 
 "I'm as good as a man," she urged. 
 
ADVENTURE 139 
 
 "You really are needed here," he replied. 
 "There's that Lunga crowd; they might reach 
 the coast right here and with both of us absent 
 rush the plantation. Good-by. We'll get back 
 in the morning sometime. It's only twelve 
 miles." 
 
 When Joan started to return to the house, 
 she was compelled to pass among the boat-carriers, 
 who lingered on the beach to chatter in queer, 
 apelike fashion about the events of the night. 
 They made way for her, but there came to her 
 as she was in the midst of them, a feeling of her 
 own helplessness. There were so many of them. 
 What was to prevent them from dragging her 
 down if they so willed ? Then she remembered 
 that one cry of hers would fetch Noa Noah and 
 her remaining sailors, each one of whom was worth 
 a dozen blacks in a struggle. As she opened 
 the gate, one of the boys stepped up to her. 
 In the darkness she could not make him out. 
 
 "What name?" she asked sharply. "What 
 name belong you V 
 
 "Me Aroa," he said. 
 
 She remembered him as one of the two sick 
 
140 ADVENTURE 
 
 boys she had nursed in the hospital. The other 
 one had died. 
 
 "Me take 'm plenty fella medicine too much," 
 Aroa was saying. 
 
 "Well, and you all right now," she answered. 
 
 "Me want 'm tobacco, plenty fella tobacco; 
 me want 'm calico, me want 'm porpoise teeth ; 
 me want 'm one fella belt." 
 
 She looked at him humorously, expecting to 
 see a smile, or at least a grin, on his face. 
 Instead, his face was expressionless. Save for a 
 narrow breech-clout, a pair of ear-plugs, and 
 about his kinky hair a chaplet of white cowrie- 
 shells, he was naked. His body was fresh-oiled 
 and shiny, and his eyes glistened in the starlight 
 like some wild animal's. The rest of the boys 
 had crowded up at his back in a solid wall. Some 
 one of them giggled, but the remainder regarded 
 her in morose and intent silence. 
 
 "Well V she asked. "What for you want 
 plenty fella things ?" 
 
 "Me take 'm medicine," quoth Aroa. "You 
 pay me." 
 
 And this was a sample of their gratitude, she 
 
ADVENTURE 141 
 
 thought. It looked as if Sheldon had been right 
 after all. Aroa waited stolidly. A leaping fish 
 splashed far out on the water. A tiny wavelet 
 murmured sleepily on the beach. The shadow 
 of a flying fox drifted by in velvet silence over- 
 head. A light air fanned coolly on her cheek ; 
 it was the land breeze beginning to blow. 
 
 "You go along quarters," she said, starting to 
 turn on her heel to enter the gate. 
 
 "You pay me," said the boy. 
 
 "Aroa, you all the same one big fool. I no 
 pay you. Now you go." 
 
 But the black was unmoved. She felt that he 
 was regarding her almost insolently as he re- 
 peated : 
 
 "I take 'm medicine. You pay me. You 
 pay me now." 
 
 Then it was that she lost her temper and 
 cuffed his ears so soundly as to drive him back 
 among his fellows. But they did not break up. 
 Another boy stepped forward. 
 
 "You pay me," he said. 
 
 His eyes had the querulous, troubled look, 
 such as she had noticed in monkeys ; but while 
 
142 ADVENTURE 
 
 he was patiently uncomfortable under her scru- 
 tiny, his thick lips were drawn firmly in an effort 
 at sullen determination. 
 
 "What for?" she asked. 
 
 "Me Gogoomy," he said. "Bawo brother 
 belong me." 
 
 Bawo, she remembered, was the sick boy who 
 had died. 
 
 "Go on," she commanded. 
 
 "Bawo take 'm medicine. Bawo finish. 
 Bawo my brother. You pay me. Father belong 
 me one big. fella chief along Port Adams. You 
 pay me." , 
 
 Joan laughed. 
 
 "Gogoomy, you just the same as Aroa, one 
 big fool. My word, who pay me for medicine ? " 
 
 She dismissed the matter by passing through 
 the gate and closing it. But Gogoomy pressed 
 up against it and said impudently : 
 
 " Father belong me one big fella chief. You no 
 bang 'm head belong me. My word, you fright 
 too much." 
 
 "Me fright?" she demanded, while anger 
 tingled all through her. 
 
ADVENTURE 143 
 
 "Too much fright bang 'm head belong me," 
 Gogoomy said proudly. 
 
 And then she reached for him, across the gate, 
 and got him. It was a sweeping, broad-handed 
 slap, so heavy that he staggered sideways and 
 nearly fell. He sprang for the gate, as if to 
 force it open, while the crowd surged forward 
 against the fence. Joan thought rapidly. Her 
 revolver was hanging on the wall of her grass 
 house. Yet one cry would bring her sailors, 
 and she knew she was safe. So she did not 
 cry for help. Instead, she whistled for Satan, at 
 the same time calling him by name. She knew 
 he was shut up in the living room, but the blacks 
 did not wait to see. They fled with wild yells 
 through the darkness, followed reluctantly by 
 Gogoomy; while she entered the bungalow, 
 laughing at first, but finally vexed to the verge of 
 tears by what had taken place. She had sat up 
 a whole night with the boy who had died, and yet 
 his brother demanded to be paid for his life. 
 
 "Ugh! the ungrateful beast ! " she muttered, 
 while she debated whether or not she would 
 confess the incident to Sheldon. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE PORT ADAMS CROWD 
 
 AND SO it was all settled easily enough," 
 Sheldon was saying. He was on the 
 veranda, drinking coffee. The whale- 
 boat was being carried into its shed. "Boucher 
 was a bit timid at first to carry off the situation 
 with a strong hand, but he did very well once 
 we got started. We made a play at holding a 
 court, and Telepasse, the old scoundrel, accepted 
 the findings. He's a Port Adams chief, a filthy 
 beggar. We fined him ten times the value of the 
 pigs, and made him move on with his mob. 
 Oh, they're a sweet lot, I must say, at least sixty 
 of them, in five big canoes, and out for trouble. 
 They've got a dozen Sniders that ought to- be 
 confiscated." 
 
 "Why didn't you ?" Joan asked. 
 "And have a row on my hands with the Com- 
 missioner ? He's terribly touchy about his black 
 
 144 
 
ADVENTURE 145 
 
 wards, as he calls them. Well, we started them 
 along their way, though they went in on the 
 beach to kai-kai several miles back. They ought 
 to pass here some time to-day." 
 
 Two hours later the canoes arrived. No one 
 saw them come. The house-boys were busy in 
 the kitchen at their own breakfast. The planta- 
 tion hands were similarly occupied in their quar- 
 ters. Satan lay sound asleep on his back under 
 the billiard-table, in his sleep brushing at the 
 flies that pestered him. Joan was rummaging in 
 the store-room, and Sheldon was taking his 
 siesta in a hamniock on the veranda. He awoke 
 gently. In some occult, subtle way a warning 
 that all was not well had penetrated his sleep 
 and roused him. Without moving, he glanced 
 down and saw the ground beneath covered with 
 armed savages. They were the same ones he 
 had parted with that morning, though he noted 
 an accession in numbers. There were men he 
 had not seen before. 
 
 He slipped from the hammock and with 
 deliberate slowness sauntered to the railing, 
 where he yawned sleepily and looked down on 
 
146 ADVENTURE 
 
 them. It came to him curiously that it was the 
 destiny ever to stand on this high place, looking 
 down on unending hordes of black trouble that 
 required control, bullying, and cajolery. But 
 while he glanced carelessly over them, he was 
 keenly taking stock. The new men were all 
 armed with modern rifles. Ah, he had thought 
 so. There were fifteen of them, undoubtedly 
 the Lunga runaways. In addition, a dozen 
 old Sniders were in the hands of the original 
 crowd. The rest were armed with spears, clubs, 
 bows and arrows, and long-handled tomahawks. 
 Beyond, drawn up on the beach, he could see the 
 big war-canoes, with high and fantastically 
 carved bows and sterns, ornamented with scrolls 
 arid bands of white cowrie shells. These were 
 the men who had killed his trader, Oscar, at 
 Ugi. 
 
 "What name you walk about this place ?" he 
 demanded. 
 
 At the same time he stole a glance seaward to 
 where the Flibberty-Gibbet reflected herself in the 
 glassy calm of the sea. Not a soul was visible 
 under her awnings, and he saw the whale-boat 
 
ADVENTURE 147 
 
 was missing from alongside. The Tahitians had 
 evidently gone shooting fish up the Balesuna. 
 He was all alone in his high place above this 
 trouble, while his world slumbered peacefully 
 under the breathless tropic noon. 
 
 Nobody replied, and he repeated his demand, 
 more of mastery in his voice this time, and a hint 
 of growing anger. The blacks moved uneasily, 
 like a herd of cattle, at the sound of his voice. 
 But not one spoke. All eyes, however, were 
 staring at him in certitude of expectancy. 
 Something was about to happen, and they were 
 waiting for it, waiting with unanimous, unstable 
 mob-mind for the one of them who would make 
 the first action that would precipitate all of them 
 into a common action. Sheldon looked for this 
 one, for such was the one to fear. Directly be- 
 neath him he caught sight of the muzzle of a rifle, 
 barely projecting between two black bodies, 
 that was slowly elevating toward him. It was 
 held at the hip by a man in the second row. 
 
 "What name you ?" Sheldon suddenly 
 shouted, pointing directly at the man who held 
 the gun, who startled and lowered the muzzle. 
 
148 ADVENTURE 
 
 Sheldon still held the whip hand, and he in- 
 tended to keep it. 
 
 "Clear out, all you fella boys," he ordered. 
 "Clear out and walk along salt water. Savvee ! " 
 
 "Me talk," spoke up a fat and filthy savage 
 whose hairy chest was caked with the unwashed 
 dirt of years. 
 
 "Oh, is that you, Telepasse ?" the white man 
 queried genially. "You tell 'm boys clear out, 
 and you stop and talk along me." 
 
 "Him good fella boy," was the reply. "Him 
 stop along." 
 
 "Well, what do you want ?" Sheldon asked, 
 striving to hide under assumed carelessness the 
 weakness of concession. 
 
 "That fella boy belong along me." The old 
 chief pointed out Gogoomy, whom Sheldon rec- 
 ognized. 
 
 "White Mary belong you too much no good," 
 Telepasse went on. "Bang 'm head belong 
 Gogoomy. Gogoomy, all the same chief. Bime 
 by me finish, Gogoomy big fella chief. White 
 Mary bang 'm head. No good. You pay me 
 plenty tobacco, plentypowder, plenty calico." 
 
ADVENTURE 149 
 
 "You old scoundrel," was Sheldon's comment. 
 An hour before, he had been chuckling over 
 Joan's recital of the episode, and here, an hour 
 later, was Telepasse himself come to collect 
 damages. 
 
 "Gogoomy," Sheldon ordered, "what name 
 you walk about here ? You get along quarters 
 plenty quick." 
 
 "Me stop," was the defiant answer. 
 
 "White Mary b'long you bang 'm head," 
 old Telepasse began again. "My word, plenty 
 big fella trouble you no pay." 
 
 "You talk along boyg," Sheldon said, with 
 increasing irritation. "You tell'm get to hell 
 along beach. Then I talk with you." 
 
 Sheldon felt a slight vibration of the veranda 
 and knew that Joan had come out and was stand- 
 ing by his side. But he did not dare glance at 
 her. There were too many rifles down below 
 there, and rifles had a way of going off from the 
 hip. 
 
 Again the veranda vibrated with her moving 
 weight, and he knew that Joan had gone into the 
 house. A minute later she was back beside him. 
 
ISO ■ ADVENTURE 
 
 He had never seen her smoke, and it struck him 
 as peculiar that she should be smoking now. 
 Then he guessed the reason. With a quick 
 glance, he noted the hand at her side, and in it 
 the familiar, paper-wrapped dynamite. He noted, 
 also, the end of fuse, split properly, into which had 
 been inserted the head of a wax match, 
 
 "Telepasse, you old reprobate, tell 'm boys 
 clear out along beach. My word, I no gammon 
 along you," 
 
 "Me no gammon," said the chief, "Me 
 want 'm pay white Mary bang 'm head b'long 
 Gogoomy," 
 
 "I'll come down there and bang 'm head b'long 
 you," Sheldon replied, leaning toward the railing 
 as if about to leap over. 
 
 An angry murmur arose, and the blacks surged 
 restlessly. The muzzles of many guns were 
 rising from the hips, Joan was pressing the 
 lighted end of the cigarette to the fuse. A Snider 
 went off with the roar of a bomb-gun, and Sheldon 
 heard a pane of window-glass crash behind him. 
 At the same moment Joan flung the dynamite, 
 the fuse hissing and spluttering, into the thick 
 
ADVENTURE 151 
 
 of the blacks. They scattered back in too great 
 haste to do any more shooting. Satan, aroused 
 by the one shot, was snarling and panting to be 
 let out. Joan heard, and ran to let him out ; and 
 thereat the tragedy was averted, and the comedy 
 began. 
 
 Rifles and spears were dropped or flung aside in 
 a wild scramble for the protection of the cocoa- 
 nut palms. Satan multiplied himself. Never had 
 he been free to tear and rend such a quantity 
 of black flesh before, and he bit and snapped 
 and rushed the flying legs till the last pair were 
 above his head. All were treed except Telepasse, 
 who was too old and fat, and he lay prone and 
 without movement where he had fallen; while 
 Satan, with too great a heart to worry an enemy 
 that did not move, dashed frantically from tree to 
 tree, barking and springing at those who clung 
 on lowest down. 
 
 "I fancy you need a lesson or two in inserting 
 fuses," Sheldon remarked dryly. 
 
 Joan's eyes were scornful. 
 
 "There was no detonator on it," she said. 
 "Besides, the detonator is yet unmanufactured 
 
IS2 ADVENTURE 
 
 that will explode that charge. It's only a bottle 
 of chlorodyne." 
 
 She put her fingers into her mouth, and Sheldon 
 winced as he saw her blow, like a boy, a sharp, 
 imperious whistle — the call she always used for 
 her sailors and that always made him wince. 
 
 "They're gone up the Balesuna, shooting 
 fish," he explained. "But there comes Oleson 
 with his boat's crew. He's an old war-horse 
 when he gets started. See him banging the 
 boys. They don't pull fast enough for him." 
 
 "And now what's to be done?" she asked. 
 "You've treed your game, but you can't keep 
 it treed." 
 
 "No; but I can teach them a lesson." 
 
 Sheldon walked over to the big bell. 
 
 "It is all right," he replied to her gesture of 
 protest. "My boys are practically all bush- 
 men, while these chaps are salt-water men, and 
 there's no love lost between them. You watch 
 the fun." 
 
 He rang a general call, and by the time the 
 two hundred laborers trooped into the compound 
 Satan was once more penned in the living room, 
 
ADVENTURE 153 
 
 complaining to high heaven at his abominable 
 treatment. The plantation hands were dancing 
 war-dances around the base of every tree and 
 filling the air with abuse and vituperation of 
 their hereditary enemies. The skipper of the 
 Flibberty-Gibbet arrived in the thick of it, in the 
 first throes of oncoming fever, staggering as he 
 walked, and shivering so severely that he could 
 scarcely hold the rifle he carried. His face was 
 ghastly blue, his teeth clicked and chattered, 
 and the violent sunshine through which he 
 walked could not warm him. 
 
 "I'll s-s-sit down, and k-k-keep a guard on 
 'em," he chattered. "D-d-dash it all, I always 
 g-get f-fever when there's any excitement. 
 W-w-wh-what are you going to do ?" 
 
 "Gather up the guns first of all." 
 
 Under Sheldon's direction the house-boys and 
 gang-bosses collected the scattered arms and 
 piled them in a heap on the veranda. The 
 modern rifles, stolen from Lunga, Sheldon set 
 aside ; the Sniders he smashed into fragments ; 
 the pile of spears, clubs, and tomahawks he pre- 
 sented to Joan. 
 
154 ADVENTURE 
 
 "A really unique addition to your collection," 
 he smiled ; "picked up right on the battle-field." 
 
 Down on the beach, he built a bonfire out of 
 the contents of the canoes, his blacks smashing, 
 breaking, and looting everything they laid hands 
 on. The canoes themselves, splintered and 
 broken, filled with sand and coral-boulders, were 
 towed out to ten fathotns of water and sunk. 
 
 "Ten fathoms will be deep enough for them 
 to work in," Sheldon said, as they walked back 
 to the compound. 
 
 Here a Saturnalia had broken loose. The 
 war-songs and dances were more unrestrained, 
 and, from abuse, the plantation blacks had 
 turned to pelting their helpless foes with pieces 
 of wood, handfuls of pebbles, and chunks of 
 coral-rock. And the seventy-five lusty cannibals 
 clung stoically to their tree-perches, enduring the 
 rain of missiles and snarling down promises of 
 vengeance. 
 
 "There'll be wars for forty years on Malaita 
 on account of this," Sheldon laughed. "But 
 I fancy old Telepasse will never again attempt 
 to rush a plantation." 
 
ADVENTURE 155 
 
 "Eh, you old scoundrel," he added, turning to 
 the old chief, who sat gibbering in impotent rage 
 at the foot of the steps. "Now head belong you 
 bang 'm, too. Come on. Miss Lackland, bang 'm 
 just once. It will be the crowning indignity." 
 
 "Ugh, he's too dirty. I'd rather give him a 
 bath. Here you, Adamu Adam, give this devil- 
 devil a wash. Soap and water ! Fill that wash- 
 tub. Ornfiri, run and fetch 'm scrub-brush." 
 
 The Tahitians, back from their fishing and 
 grinning at the bedlam of the compound, entered 
 into the joke. 
 
 " Tambo! Tambo!" shrieked the cannibals 
 from the trees, appalled at so awful a desecration, 
 as they saw their chief tumbled into the tub and 
 the sacred dirt rubbed and soused from his body. 
 
 Joan, who had gone into the bungalow, tossed 
 down a strip of white calico, in which old Tele- 
 passe was promptly wrapped, and he stood forth, 
 resplendent and purified, withal he still spat and 
 strangled from the soap-suds with which Noa 
 Noah had gargled his throat. 
 
 The house-boys were directed to fetch hand- 
 cuffs, and, one by one, the Lunga runaways were 
 
iS6 ADVENTURE 
 
 hauled down out of their trees and made fast. 
 Sheldon ironed them in pairs, and ran a steel 
 chain through the links of the irons. Gogoomy 
 was given a lecture for his mutinous conduct and 
 locked up for the afternoon. Then Sheldon 
 rewarded the plantation hands with an after- 
 noon's holiday, and, when they had withdrawn 
 from the compound, permitted the Port Adams 
 men to descend from the trees. And all after- 
 noon he and Joan loafed in the cool of the ver- 
 anda and watched them diving down and empty- 
 ing their sunken canoes of the sand and rocks. 
 It was twilight when they embarked and paddled 
 away with a few broken paddles. A breeze had 
 sprung up, and the Flibberty-Gibbet had already 
 sailed for Lunga to return the runaways. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 MR. MORGAN AND MR. RAFF 
 
 SHELDON was back in the plantation 
 superintending the building of a bridge, 
 when the schooner Malakula ran in close 
 and dropped anchor. Joan watched the taking 
 ■in of sail and the swinging out of the boat with 
 a sailor's interest, and herself met the two men 
 who came ashore. While one of the house-boys 
 ran to fetch Sheldon, she had the visitors served 
 with whiskey and soda, and sat and talked with 
 them. 
 
 They seemed awkward and constrained in her 
 presence, and she caught first one and then the 
 other looking at her with secret curiosity. She 
 felt that they were weighing her, appraising her, 
 and for the first time the anomalous position she 
 occupied on Berande sank sharply home to her. 
 On the other hand, they puzzled her. They 
 were neither traders nor sailors of any type she 
 
 IS7 
 
IS8 ADVENTURE 
 
 had known. Nor did they talk like gentlemen, 
 despite the fact that there was nothing offensive 
 in their bearing and that the veneer of ordinary 
 social nicety was theirs. Undoubtedly, they 
 were men of affairs — businessmen of a sort ; 
 but what affairs should they have in the Solo- 
 mons, and what business on Berande ? The 
 elder one, Morgan, was a huge man, bronzed 
 and mustached, with a deep bass voice and an 
 almost guttural speech, and the other, Raff, was 
 slight and effeminate, with nervous hands and 
 watery washed-out gray eyes, who spoke with a 
 faint indefinable accent that was hauntingly 
 reminiscent of the Cockney and that was yet 
 not Cockney of any brand she had ever encoun- 
 tered. Whatever they were, they were self- 
 made men, she concluded ; and she felt the 
 impulse to shudder at thought of falling into 
 their hands in a business way. There, they 
 would be merciless. 
 
 She watched Sheldon closely when he arrived, 
 and divined that he was not particularly de- 
 lighted to see them. But see them he must, 
 and so pressing was the need that, after a little 
 
ADVENTURE 159 
 
 perfunctory general conversation, he led the 
 two men into the stuffy office. Later in the 
 afternoon, she asked Lalaperu where they had 
 gone. 
 
 "My word," quoth Lalaperu; "plenty walk 
 about, plenty look 'm. Look 'm tree ; look 'm 
 ground belong tree; look 'm all fella bridge; 
 look 'm copra-house ; look 'm grass land ; look 
 'm river ; look 'm whale-boat — my word, plenty 
 big fella look 'm too much." 
 
 "What fella man them two fella?" she 
 queried. 
 
 "Big fella marster along white man," was the 
 extent of his description. 
 
 But Joan decided that they were men of im- 
 portance in the Solomons, and that their exami- 
 nation of the plantation and of its accounts was 
 of sinister significance. 
 
 At dinner no word was dropped that gave a 
 hint of their errand. The conversation was on 
 general topics ; but Joan could not help notic- 
 ing the troubled, absent expression that occa- 
 sionally came into Sheldon's eyes. After coffee, 
 she left them ; and at midnight, from across the 
 
i6o ADVENTURE 
 
 compound, she could hear the low murmur of 
 their voices and see glowing the fiery ends of 
 their cigars. Up early herself, she found they 
 had already departed on another tramp over the 
 plantation. 
 
 "What you think?" she asked Viaburi. 
 
 " Sheldon marster he go along finish short time 
 little bit," was the answer. 
 
 "What you think?" she asked Ornfiri. 
 
 " Sheldon marster big fella walk about along 
 Sydney. Yes, me t'ink so. He finish along 
 Berande." 
 
 All day the examination of the plantation and 
 the discussion went on ; and all day the skipper 
 of the Malakula sent urgent messages ashore for 
 the two men to hasten. It was not until sunset 
 that they went down to the boat, and even then 
 a final talk of nearly an hour took place on the 
 beach. Sheldon was combating something — 
 that she could plainly see; and that his two 
 visitors were not giving in, she could also plainly 
 see. 
 
 "What name?" she asked lightly, when 
 Sheldon sat down to dinner. 
 
ADVENTURE i6i 
 
 He looked at her and smiled, but it was a 
 very wan and wistful smile. 
 
 "My word," she went on. "One big fella 
 talk. Sun he go down — talk-talk ; sun he come 
 up — talk-talk; all the time talk-talk. What 
 name that fella talk-talk ?" 
 
 "Oh, nothing much." He shrugged his 
 shoulders. "They were trying to buy Berande, 
 that was all." 
 
 She looked at him challengingly. 
 
 "It must have been more than that. It was 
 you who wanted to sell." 
 
 "Indeed, no. Miss Lackland; I assure you 
 that I am far from desiring to sell." 
 
 "Don't let us fence about it," she urged. 
 "Let it be straight talk between us. You're in 
 trouble. I'm not a fool. Tell me. Besides, I 
 maybe able to help, to — to suggest something." 
 . In the pause that followed, he seemed to 
 debate, not so much whether he would tell her, 
 as how to begin to tell her. 
 
 "I'm American, you see," she persisted, 
 "and our American heritage is a large parcel of 
 business sense. I don't like it myself, but I 
 
i62 ADVENTURE 
 
 know I've got it — at least more than you have. 
 Let us talk it over and find a way out. How 
 much do you owe ?" 
 
 "A thousand pounds, and a few trifles over 
 — small bills, you know. Then, too, thirty of 
 the boys finish their time next week, and their 
 balances will average ten pounds each. But 
 what is the need of bothering your head with it ? 
 Really, you know — " 
 
 "What is Berande worth ? — right now ?" 
 "Whatever Morgan and Raff are willing to 
 pay for it." A glance at her hurt expression 
 decided him. "Hughie and I have sunk eight 
 thousand pounds in it, and our time. It is a 
 good property, and worth more than that. 
 But it has three years to run before its returns 
 begin to come in. That is why Hughie and I 
 engaged in trading and recruiting. The Jessie 
 and our stations came very near to paying the 
 running expenses of Berande." 
 
 "And Morgan and RafF offered you what ?" 
 "A thousand pounds clear, after paying all 
 bills." 
 
 "The thieves !" she cried. 
 
ADVENTURE 163 
 
 "No, they're good business men, that is all. 
 As they told me, a thing is worth no more than 
 one is willing to pay or to receive." 
 
 "And how much do you need to carry on 
 Berande for three years ?" Joan hurried on. 
 
 "Two hundred boys at six pounds a year 
 means thirty-six hundred pounds — that's the 
 main item." 
 
 "My ! how cheap labor does mount up ! 
 Thirty-six hundred pounds, eighteen thousand 
 dollars, just for a lot of cannibals ! Yet the 
 place is good security. You could go down to 
 Sydney and raise the money." 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 "You can't get them to look at plantations 
 down there. They've been taken in too often. 
 But I do hate to give the place up — more for 
 Hughie's sake, I swear, than my own. He was 
 bound up in it. You see, he was a persistent 
 chap, and hated to acknowledge defeat. It — it 
 makes me uncomfortable to think of it myself. 
 We were running slowly behind, but with the 
 Jessie we hoped to muddle through in some 
 fashion." 
 
i64 ADVENTURE 
 
 "You were muddlers, the pair of you, with- 
 out doubt. But you needn't sell to Morgan 
 and Raff. I shall go down to Sydney on the 
 next steamer, and I'll come back in a second- 
 hand schooner. I should be able to buy one 
 for five or six thousand dollars — " 
 
 He held up his hand in protest, but she 
 waved it aside. 
 
 "I may manage to freight a cargo back as 
 well. At any rate, the schooner will take over 
 the Jessie's business. You can make your 
 arrangements accordingly, and have plenty of 
 work for her when I get back. I'm going to 
 become a partner in Berande to the extent of 
 my bag of sovereigns — I've got over fifteen 
 hundred of them, you know. We'll draw up 
 an agreement right now — that is, with your 
 permission, and I know you won't refuse it." 
 
 He looked at her with good-natured amuse- 
 ment. 
 
 "You know I sailed *here all the way from 
 Tahiti in order to become a planter," she in- 
 sisted. "You know what my plans were. Now 
 I've changed them, that's all. I'd rather be a 
 
ADVENTURE 165 
 
 part owner of Berande and get my returns in 
 three years, than break ground on Pari-Sulay 
 and wait seven years." 
 
 "And this — er — this schooner — " Sheldon 
 changed his mind and stopped. 
 
 "Yes, go on." 
 
 "You won't be angry ?" he queried. 
 
 "No, no; this is business. Go on." 
 
 "You — er — you would run her yourself? 
 — be the captain, in short ? — and go recruiting 
 on Malaita f" 
 
 "Certainly. We would save the cost of a 
 skipper. Under an agreement you would be 
 credited with a manager's salary, and I with a 
 captain's. It's quite simple. Besides, if you 
 won't let me be your partner, I shall buy Pari- 
 Sulay, get a much smaller vessel, and run her 
 myself. So what is the difference?" 
 
 "The difference? — why, all the difference 
 in the world. In the case of Pari-Sulay you 
 would be on an independent venture. You 
 could turn cannibal for all I could interfere in 
 the matter. But on Berande, you would be 
 my partner, and then I would be responsible. 
 
i66 ADVENTURE 
 
 And of course I couldn't permit you, as my 
 partner, to be skipper of a recruiter. I tell 
 you, the thing is what I would not permit any 
 sister or wife of mine — " 
 
 "But I'm not going to be your wife, thank 
 goodness — only your partner." 
 
 "Besides, it's all ridiculous," he held on 
 steadily. "Think of the situation. A man and 
 a woman, both young, partners on an isolated 
 plantation. Why, the only practical way out 
 would be that I'd have to marry you — " 
 
 "Mine was a business proposition, not a 
 marriage proposal," she interrupted, coldly 
 angry. "I wonder if somewhere in this world 
 there is one man who could accept me for a 
 comrade." 
 
 "But you are a woman just the same," he 
 began, "and there are certain conventions, cer- 
 tain decencies — " 
 
 She sprang up and stamped her foot. 
 
 "Do you know what I'd like to say ?" she 
 demanded. 
 
 "Yes," he smiled, "you'd like to say, 'Damn 
 petticoats !'" 
 
ADVENTURE 167 
 
 She nodded her head ruefully. 
 
 "That's what I wanted to say, but it sounds 
 different on your lips. It sounds as though 
 you meant it yourself, and that you meant it 
 because of me. — - 
 
 "Well, I am going to bed. But do, please, 
 think over my proposition, and let me know in 
 the morning. There's no use in my discussing 
 it now. You make me so angry. You are 
 cowardly, you know, and very egotistic. You 
 are afraid of what other fools will say. No 
 matter how hone'st your motives, if others 
 criticised your actions, your feelings would be 
 hurt. And you think more about your own 
 wretched feelings than you do about mine. 
 And then, being a coward — all men are at 
 heart cowards — you disguise your cowardice 
 by calling it chivalry. I thank heaven that I 
 was not born a man. Good night. Do think 
 it over. And don't be foolish. What Berande 
 needs is good American hustle. You don't 
 know what that is. You are a muddler. Be- 
 sides, you are enervated. I'm fresh to the 
 climate. Let me be your partner, and you'll 
 
i68 ADVENTURE 
 
 see me rattle the dry bones of the Solomons. 
 Confess, I've rattled yours already." 
 
 "I should say so," he answered. "Really, 
 you know, you have, I never received such a 
 dressing-down in my life. If any one had 
 ever told me that I'd be a party even to the 
 present situation — Yes, I confess, you have 
 rattled my dry bones pretty considerably." 
 
 "But that is nothing to the rattling they are 
 going to get," she assured him, as he rose and 
 took her hand. "Good night. And do, do 
 give me a rational decision in the morning," 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE LOGIC OF YOUTH 
 
 I WISH I knew whether you are merely 
 headstrong, or whether you really intend 
 to be a Solomon planter," Sheldon said, 
 in the morning at breakfast. 
 
 "I wish you were more adaptable," Joan 
 retorted. "You have more preconceived no- 
 tions than any man I ever met. Why in the 
 name of common-sense, in the name of — fair 
 play, can't you get it into your head that I 
 am different from the women you have known 
 and treat me accordingly ? You surely ought 
 to know I am different. I sailed my own 
 schooner here — skipper, if you please. I came 
 here to make my living. You know that ; I've 
 told you often enough. It was Dad's plan, and 
 I'm carrying it out, just as you are trying to 
 carry out your Hughie's plan. Dad started to 
 sail and sail until he could find the proper 
 
 169 
 
I70 ADVENTURE 
 
 islands for planting. He died, and I sailed 
 and sailed until I arrived here. Well," she 
 shrugged her shoulders, "the schooner is at 
 the bottom of the sea ; I can't sail any farther ; 
 therefore I remain here. And a planter I shall 
 certainly be." 
 
 "You see," he began. 
 
 "I haven't got to the point," she interrupted. 
 "Looking back on my conduct from the mo- 
 ment I first set foot on your beach, I can see 
 no false pretence that I have made about myself 
 or my intentions. I was my natural self to 
 you from the first. I told you my plans. And 
 yet you sit there and calmly tell me that you 
 don't know whether I really intend to become 
 a planter, or whether it is all obstinacy and 
 pretence. Now let me assure you, for the last 
 time, that I really and truly shall become a 
 planter, thanks to you, or in spite of you. Do 
 you want me for a partner ?" 
 
 "But do you realize that I would be looked 
 upon as the most foolish jackanapes in the South 
 Seas if I took a young girl like you in with me 
 here on Berande ?" he asked. 
 
ADVENTURE 171 
 
 "No; decidedly not. But there you are 
 again, worrying about what idiots and the 
 generally evil-minded will think of you, I 
 should have thought you had learned self- 
 reliance on Berande, instead of needing to lean 
 upon the moral support of every whiskey- 
 guzzling worthless South Sea vagabond." 
 
 He smiled and said : 
 
 "Yes, that is the worst of it. You are un- 
 answerable. Yours is the logic of youth, aiid 
 no man can answer that. The facts of Kfe 
 can, but they have no place in the logic of 
 youth. Youth must try to live according to 
 its logic. That is the only way to learn better." 
 
 "There is no harfti in trying?" she inter- 
 jected. 
 
 "But there is. That is the very point. 
 The facts always smash youth's logic, and they 
 usually smash youth's heart, too. It's like 
 platonic friendships and — and all such 
 things; they are all right in theory, but they 
 won't work in practice. I used to believe in 
 such things once. That is why I am here in 
 the Solomons at present." 
 
172 ADVENTURE 
 
 Joan was impatient. He saw that she could 
 not understand. Life was too clearly simple 
 to her. It was only the youth who was arguing 
 with him, the youth with youth's pure-minded 
 and invincible reasoning. Hers was only the 
 boy's soul in a woman's body. He looked at 
 her flushed, eager face, at the great ropes of 
 hair coiled on the small head, at the rounded 
 lines of the figure showing plainly through the 
 home-made gown, and at the eyes, boy's eyes, 
 under cool, level brows — and he wondered 
 why a being that was so much beautiful 
 woman should be no woman at all. Why in 
 the deuce was she not carroty-haired, or cross- 
 eyed, or hare-lipped ? 
 
 "Suppose we do become partners on Be- 
 rande," he said, at the same time experiencing a 
 feeling of fright at the prospect that was tangled 
 with a contradictory feeling of charm; "either 
 I'll fall in love with you, or you with me. Pro- 
 pinquity is dangerous, you know. In fact, it is 
 propinquity that usually gives the facer to the 
 logic of youth." 
 
 "If you think I came to the Solomons to get 
 
ADVENTURE 173 
 
 married," she began wrathfuUy. "Well, there 
 are better men in Hawaii, that's all. Really, 
 you know, the way you harp on that one string 
 would lead an unprejudiced listener to conclude 
 that you are prurient-minded — " 
 
 She stopped, appalled. His face had gone 
 red and white with such abruptness as to startle 
 her. He was patently very angry. She sipped 
 the last of her coffee, and arose, saying : 
 
 "I'll wait until you are in a better temper 
 before taking up the discussion again. That 
 is what's the matter with you. You get angry 
 too easily. Will you come swimming ? The 
 tide is just right." 
 
 "If she were a man, I'd bundle her off the 
 plantation, root and crop, whale-boat, Tahitian 
 sailors, sovereigns, and all," he said to him- 
 self after she had left the room. 
 
 But that was the trouble. She was not a 
 man, and where would she go, and what would 
 happen to her ? 
 
 He got to his feet, lighted a cigarette, and her 
 Stetson hat, hanging on the wall over her re- 
 volver-belt, caught his eye. That was the devil 
 
174 ADVENTURE 
 
 of it, too. He did not want her to go. After 
 all, she had not grown up yet. That was why 
 her logic hurt. It was only the logic of youth, 
 but it could hurt damnably at times. At any 
 rate, he would resolve upon one thing : never 
 again would he lose his temper with her. She 
 was a child ; he must remember that. He 
 sighed heavily. But why in reasonableness had 
 such a child been incorporated in such a woman's 
 form ? 
 
 And as he continued to stare at her hat and 
 think, the hurt he had received passed away, 
 and he found himself cudgeling his brains for 
 some way out of the muddle — for some method 
 by which she could remain on Berande. A 
 chaperon ! Why not ? He could send to Syd- 
 ney on the first steamer for one. He could — 
 
 Her trilling laughter smote upon his revery, 
 and he stepped to the screen door, through 
 which he could see her running down the path 
 to the beach. At her heels ran two of her 
 sailors, Papehara and Mahameme, in scarlet 
 lava-lavas, with naked sheath-knives' gleaming 
 in their belts. It was another sample of her 
 
ADVENTURE 175 
 
 wilfulness. Despite entreaties and commands, 
 and warnings of the danger from sharks, she 
 persisted in swimming at any and all times, and 
 by special preference, it seemed to him, imme- 
 diately after eating. 
 
 He watched her take the water, diving cleanly 
 like a boy, from the end of the little pier ; and 
 "he watched her strike out, with single overhand 
 stroke, her henchmen swimming a dozen feet 
 away op either side. He did not have much 
 faith in their ability to beat off a hungry man- 
 eater, though he did believe, implicitly, that their 
 lives would go bravely before hers in case of an 
 attack. 
 
 Straight out they swam, their heads growing 
 smaller and smaller. There was a slight restless 
 heave to the sea, and soon the three heads were 
 disappearing behind it with greater frequency. 
 He strained his eyes to keep them in sight, and 
 finally fetched the telescope on to the veranda. 
 A squall was making over from the direction of 
 Florida ; but then, she and her men laughed at 
 squalls and the white choppy sea at such times. 
 She certainly could swim, he had long since 
 
176 ADVENTURE 
 
 concluded. That came of her training in Hawaii. 
 But sharks were sharks, and he had known of more 
 than one good swimmer drowned in a tide-rip. 
 
 The squall blackened the sky, beat the ocean 
 white where he had last seen the three heads, 
 and then blotted out sea and sky and everything 
 with its deluge of rain. It passed on, and 
 Berande emerged in the bright sunshine as the 
 three swimmers emerged from the sea. Sheldon 
 slipped inside with the telescope, and through 
 the screen door watched her run up the path, 
 shaking down her hair as she ran, to the fresh- 
 water shower under the house. 
 
 On the veranda, that afternoon, he broached 
 the proposition of a chaperon as delicately as 
 he could, explaining the necessity at Berande for 
 such a body, a housekeeper to run the boys and 
 the store-room, and perform divers other- useful 
 functions. When he had finished, he waited 
 anxiously for what Joan would say. 
 
 "Then you don't like the way I've been 
 managing the house ?" was her first objection. 
 And. next, brushing his attempted explanations 
 aside: "One of two things would happen. 
 
ADVENTURE 177 
 
 Either I should cancel our partnership agreement 
 and go away, leaving you to get another chaperon 
 to chaperon your chaperon ; or else I'd take the 
 old hen out in the whale-boat and drown her. 
 Do you imagine for one moment that I sailed my 
 schooner down here to this raw edge of the earth 
 in order to put myself under a chaperon ?" 
 
 -"But, really — er — you know — a chaperon 
 is a necessary evil," he objected. 
 
 "We've got along very nicely so far without 
 one. Did I have one on the Miele? And yet 
 I was the only woman on board. There are 
 only three things I am afraid of : bumble-bees, 
 scarlet fever, and chaperons. Ugh ! — the 
 clucking, evil-minded monsters, finding wrong 
 in everything, seeing sin in the most innocent 
 actions, and suggesting sin — yes, causing sin, 
 by their diseased imaginings." 
 
 "Phew!" Sheldon leaned back from the 
 table in mock fear. 
 
 "You needn't worry about your bread and 
 butter," he ventured. "If you fail at planting, 
 you would be sure to succeed as a writer — 
 novels with a purpose, you know." 
 
178 ADVENTURE 
 
 "I didn't think there were persons in the 
 Solomons who needed such books," she re- 
 taliated. "But you are certainly one — you 
 and your custodians of virtue." 
 
 He winced, but Joan rattled on with the 
 platitudinous originality of youth. 
 
 "As if anything good were worth while when 
 it has to be guarded and put in leg-irons and 
 handcuffs in order to keep it good. Your desire 
 for a chaperon as much as implies that I am 
 that sort of a creature. I prefer to be good 
 because it is good to be good, rather than because 
 I can't be bad because some argus-eyed old 
 frump won't let me have a chance to be bad." 
 
 "But it — it is not that," he put in. "It is 
 what others will think." 
 
 "Let them think, the nasty-minded wretches ! 
 It is because men like you are afraid of the nasty- 
 minded that you allow their opinions to rule 
 you." 
 
 "I am afraid you are a female Shelley," he 
 replied, "And as such, you really drive me to 
 become your partner in order to protect you." 
 
 " If you take me as a partner in order to pro- 
 
ADVENTURE 179 
 
 tect me — I — I sha'n't be your partner, that's 
 all. You'll drive me into buying Pari-Sulay 
 yet." 
 
 "All the more reason — " he attempted. 
 
 "Do you know what I'll do ?" she demanded, 
 "I'll find some man in the Solomons who won't 
 want to protect me." 
 
 Sheldon could not conceal the shock her 
 words gave him. 
 
 "You don't mean that, you know," he pleaded. 
 
 " I do ; I really do. I am sick and tired of 
 this protection dodge. Don't forget for a 
 moment that I am perfectly able to take care 
 of myself. Besides, I have eight of the best 
 protectors in the world — my sailors." 
 
 "You should have lived a thousand years ago," 
 he laughed, "or a thousand years hence. You 
 are very primitive and equally super-modern. 
 The twentieth century is no place for you." 
 
 "But the Solomon Islands are. You were 
 living like a savage when I came along and 
 found you — eating nothing but tinned meat 
 and scones that would have ruined the digestion 
 of a camel. Anyway, I've remedied that, and 
 
i8o ADVENTURE 
 
 since we are to be partners, it will stay remedied. 
 You won't die of malnutrition, be sure of that." 
 
 "If we enter into partnership," he announced, 
 "it must be thoroughly understood that you are 
 not allowed to run the schooner. You can go 
 down to Sydney and buy her, but a skipper we 
 must have — " 
 
 "At so much additional expense, and most 
 likely a whiskey-drinking, irresponsible, and 
 incapable man to boot. Besides, I'd have the 
 business more at heart than any man we could 
 hire. As for capability, I tell you I can sail all 
 around the average broken captain or promoted 
 able seaman you find in the South Seas. And 
 you know I am a navigator." 
 
 "But being my partner," he said coolly, 
 "makes you none the less a lady." 
 
 "Thank you for telling me that my contem- 
 plated conduct is unladylike." 
 
 She arose, tears of anger and mortification in 
 her eyes, and went over to the phonograph. 
 
 "I wonder if all men are as ridiculous as 
 you ?" she said. 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders and smiled. Dis- 
 
ADVENTURE i8i 
 
 cussion was useless — he had learned that ; 
 and he was resolved to keep his temper. And 
 before the day was out, she capitulated. She 
 was to go to Sydney on the first steamer, pur- 
 chase the schooner, and sail back with an island 
 skipper on board. And then she inveigled 
 Sheldon into agreeing that she could take occa- 
 sional cruises in the islands, though he was 
 adamant when it came to a recruiting trip on 
 Malaita. That was the one thing barred. 
 
 And after it was all over, and "a terse and 
 businesslike agreement (by her urging) drawn 
 up and signed, Sheldon paced up and down for a 
 full hour, meditating upon how many different 
 kinds of a fool he had made of himself. It was 
 an impossible situation, and yet no more impos- 
 sible than the previous one, and no more impos- 
 sible than the one that would have obtained 
 had she gone off on her own and bought Pari- 
 Sulay. He had never seen a more independent 
 woman who stood more in need of a protector 
 than this boy-minded girl who had landed on his 
 beach with eight picturesque savages, a long- 
 barrelled revolver, a bag of gold, and a gaudy 
 
i82 ADVENTURE 
 
 merchandise of imagined romance and adven- 
 ture. 
 
 He had never read of anything to compare 
 with it. The fictionists, as usual, were exceeded 
 by fact. The whole thing was too preposterous 
 to be true. He gnawed his mustache and 
 smoked cigarette after cigarette. Satan, back 
 from a prowl around the compound, ran up to 
 him and touched his hand with a cold, damp 
 nose. Sheldon caressed the animal's ears, then 
 threw himself into a chair and laughed heartily. 
 What would the Commissioner of the Solomons 
 think ? What would his people at home think ? 
 And in the one breath he was glad that the 
 partnership had been effected and sorry that 
 Joan Lackland had ever come to the Solomons. 
 Then he went inside and looked at himself in a 
 hand-mirror. He studied the reflection long 
 and thoughtfully and wonderingly. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE MARTBA 
 
 THEY were deep in a game of billiards the 
 next morning, after the eleven o'clock 
 breakfast, when Viaburi entered and 
 announced : 
 
 "Big fella schooner close up." 
 
 Even as he spoke, they heard the rumble of 
 chain through hawse-pipe, and from the veranda 
 saw a big black-painted schooner, swinging to 
 her just-caught anchor. 
 
 " It's a Yankee," Joan cried. " See that bow ! 
 Look at that elliptical stern ! Ah, I thought 
 so — " as the Stars and Stripes fluttered to the 
 masthead. 
 
 Noa Noah, at Sheldon's direction, ran the 
 Union Jack up the flagstaff. 
 
 "Now what is an American vessel doing down 
 here?" Joan asked.' "It's not a yacht, though 
 I'll wager she can sail. Look ! Her name ! 
 What is it?" 
 
 183 
 
1 84 ADVENTURE 
 
 "Martha, San Francisco," Sheldon read, look- 
 ing through the telescope. "It's the first 
 Yankee I ever heard of in the Solomons. They 
 are coming ashore, whoever they are. And, 
 by Jove, look at those men at the oars. It's an 
 all-white crew. Now what reason brings them 
 here.?" 
 
 "They're not proper sailors," Joan com- 
 mented. "I'd be ashamed of a crew of black 
 boys that pulled in such a fashion. Look at 
 that fellow in the bow ~ the one just jumping 
 out; he'd be more at home on a cow-pony." 
 
 The boat's crew scattered up and down the 
 beach, ranging about with eager curiosity, 
 while the two men who had sat in the stcrnsheets 
 opened the gate and came up the path to the 
 bungalow. One of them, a tall and slender man, 
 was clad in white ducks that fitted him like a 
 semi-military uniform. The other man, in non- 
 descript garments that were both of the sea and 
 shore and that must have been uncomfortably 
 hot, slouched and shambled like an overgrown 
 ape. To complete the illusion, his face seemed 
 to sprout in all directions with a dense, bushy 
 
ADVENTURE 185 
 
 mass of red whiskers, while his eyes were small 
 and sharp, and restless. 
 
 Sheldon, who had gone to the head of the steps, 
 introduced them to Joan. The be-whiskered 
 individual, who looked like a Scotchman, had 
 the Teutonic name of Von Blix, and spoke with a 
 strong American accent. The tall man in the 
 well-fitting ducks, who gave the English name 
 of Tudor — John Tudor — talked purely-enun- 
 ciated English such as any cultured American 
 would talk, save for the fact that it was most deli- 
 cately and subtly touched by a faint German 
 accent. Joan decided that she had been helped 
 to identify the accent by the short German- 
 looking mustache that did not conceal the 
 mouth and its full red lips, which would have 
 formed a Cupid's bow but for some harshness 
 or severity of spirit that had moulded them 
 masculinely. 
 
 Von Blix was rough and boorish, but Tudor 
 was gracefully easy in, everything he did, or 
 looked, or said. His blue eyes sparkled and 
 flashed, his clean-cut features were an index to 
 his slightest shades of feeling and expression. 
 
i86 ADVENTURE 
 
 He bubbled with enthusiasms, and his faintest 
 smile or lightest laugh seemed spontaneous and 
 genuine. But it was only occasionally, at first, 
 that he spoke, for Von Blix told their story and 
 stated their errand. 
 
 They were on a gold-hunting expedition. He 
 was the leader, and Tudor was his lieutenant. 
 All hands — and there were twenty-eight — 
 were shareholders, in varying proportions, in the 
 adventure. Several were sailors, but the large 
 majority were miners, culled from all the camps 
 from Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. It was the 
 old and ever-untiring pursuit of gold, and they 
 came to the Solomons to get it. Part of them, 
 under the leadership of Tudor, were to go up the 
 Balesuna, and penetrate the mountainous heart 
 of Guadalcanar, while the Martha, under Von 
 Blix, sailed away for Malaita to put through 
 similar exploration. 
 
 "And so," said Von Blix, "for Mr. Tudor's 
 expedition we must have some black boys. Can 
 we get them from you ?" 
 
 "Of course we will pay," Tudor broke in. 
 "You have only to charge what you consider 
 
ADVENTURE 187 
 
 them worth. You pay them six pounds a year, 
 don't you ?" 
 
 "In the first place we can't spare them," 
 Sheldon answered. "We are short of them 
 on the plantation as it is." 
 
 "We?" Tudor asked quickly. "Then you 
 are a firm or a partnership ? I understood at 
 Guvutu that you were alone, that you had lost 
 your partner." 
 
 Sheldon inclined his head toward Joan, and as 
 he spoke she felt that he had become a trifle stiff. 
 
 "Miss Lackland has become interested in the 
 plantation since then. But to return to the boys. 
 We can't spare them, and besides, they would be 
 of little use. You couldn't get them to accom- 
 pany you beyond Binu, which is a short day's 
 work with the boats from here. They are Ma- 
 laita men, and they are afraid of being eaten. 
 They would desert you at the first opportunity. 
 You could get the Binu men to accompany you 
 another day's journey, through the grass lands, 
 but at the first roll of the foothills look for them 
 to turn back. They likewise are disinclined to 
 being eaten." 
 
i88 ADVENTURE 
 
 "Is it as bad as that ?" asked Von Blix. 
 
 "The interior of Guadalcanar has never been 
 explored," Sheldon explained, "The bushmen 
 are as wild men as are to be found anywhere in the 
 world to-day. I have never seen one. I have 
 never seen a man who has seen one. They never 
 come down to the coast, though their scouting 
 parties occasionally eat a coast native who has 
 wandered too far inland. Nobody knows any- 
 thing about them. They don't even use tobacco 
 — have never learned its use. The Austrian ex- 
 pedition — scientists, you know — got part way 
 in before it was cut to pieces. The monument is 
 up the beach there several miles. Only one man 
 got back to the coast to tell the tale. And now 
 you have all I or any other man knows of the 
 inside of Guadalcanar." 
 
 "But gold — have you heard of gold?" 
 Tudor asked impatiently. "Do you know any- 
 thing about gold ?" 
 
 Sheldon smiled, while the two visitors hung 
 eagerly upon his words. 
 
 "You can go two miles up the Balesuna and 
 wash colors from the gravel. I've done it 
 
ADVENTURE 189 
 
 often. There is gold undoubtedly back in the 
 
 mountains." 
 
 : Tudor and Von Blix looked triumphantly at 
 
 each other. 
 
 "Old Wheatsheaf's yarn was true, then," 
 Tudor said, and Von Blix nodded. "And if 
 Malaita turns out as well — ■" 
 
 Tudor broke off and looked at Joan. 
 
 "It was the tale of this old beachcomber that 
 brought us here," he explained. "Von Blix be- 
 friended him and was told the secret." He 
 turned and addressed Sheldon. "I think we 
 shall prove that white men have been through the 
 heart of Guadalcanar long before the time of the 
 Austrian expedition," 
 
 Sheldon shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "We have never heard of it down here," he 
 said simply. Then he addressed Von Blix. "As 
 to the boys, you couldn't use them farther than 
 Binu, and I'll lend you as many as you want as 
 far as that. How many of your party are going, 
 and how soon will you start ?" 
 
 "Ten," said Tudor; "nine men and myself," 
 
 "And you should be able to start day after 
 
igo ADVENTURE 
 
 to-morrow," Von Blix said to him. "The boats 
 should practically be knocked together this after- 
 noon. To-morrow should see the outfit portioned 
 and packed. As for the Martha, Mr. Sheldon, 
 we'll rush the stuff ashore this afternoon and 
 sail by sundown." 
 
 As the two men returned down the path to 
 their boat, Sheldon regarded Joan quizzically. 
 
 "There's romance for you," he said, "and ad- 
 venture — gold-hunting among the cannibals." 
 
 "A title for a book," she cried. "Or better 
 yet, 'Gold-hunting Among the Head-hunters.' 
 My! wouldn't it sell!" 
 
 : "And now aren't you sorry you became a 
 cocoanut planter ? " he teased. "Think of in- 
 vesting in such an adventure." 
 
 "If I did," she retorted, "Von Blix wouldn't 
 be finicky about my joining in the cruise to 
 Malaita." 
 
 " I don't doubt but what he would jump at it." 
 
 "What do you think of them ?" she asked. 
 
 "Oh, old Von Blix is all right, a solid sort of 
 chap in his fashion ; but Tudor is flyaway — too 
 much on the surface, you know. If it came to 
 
ADVENTURE 191 
 
 being wrecked on a desert island, I'd prefer Von 
 Blix." 
 
 "I don't quite understand," Joan objected. 
 "What have you against Tudor ?" 
 
 "You remember Browning's Last Duchess?" 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "Well, Tudor reminds me of her — " 
 
 "But she was delightful." 
 
 "So she was. But she was a woman. One 
 expects something different from a man — more 
 control, you know, more restraint, more delibera- 
 tion. A man must be more solid, more solid 
 and steady-going and less effervescent. A man 
 of Tudor's type gets on my nerves. One 
 demands more repose from a man." 
 
 Joan felt that she did not quite agree with his 
 judgment; and, somehow, Sheldon caught her 
 feeling and was disturbed. He remembered 
 noting how her eyes had brightened as she talked 
 with the newcomer — confound it all, was he get- 
 ting jealous ? he asked himself. Why shouldn't 
 her eyes brighten ? What concern was it of his ? 
 
 A second boat had been lowered, and the outfit 
 of the shore party was landed rapidly. A dozen 
 
192 ADVENTURE 
 
 of the crew put the knocked-down boats together 
 on the beach. There were five of these craft — 
 lean and narrow, with flaring sides, and remark- 
 ably long. Each was equipped with three 
 paddles and several iron-shod poles. 
 
 "You chaps certainly seem to know river- 
 work," Sheldon told one of the carpenters. 
 
 The man spat a mouthful of tobacco juice into 
 the white sand, and answered : 
 
 "We use 'em in Alaska, They're modelled 
 after the Yukon poling-boats, and you can bet 
 your life they're crackerjacks. This creek'U be 
 a snap alongside some of them Northern streams. 
 Five hundred pounds in one of them boats an' 
 two men can snake it along in a way that'd 
 surprise you." 
 
 At sunset the Martha broke out her anchor and 
 got under way, dipping her flag and saluting with 
 a bomb gun. The Union Jack ran up and down 
 the staff, and Sheldon replied with his brass 
 signal cannon. The miners pitched their tents 
 in the compound, and cooked on the beach, 
 while Tudor dined with Joan and Sheldon. 
 
 Their guest seemed to have been everywhere 
 
ADVENTURE 193 
 
 and seen everything and met everybody, and, 
 encouraged by Joan, his talk was largely upon 
 his own adventures. He was an adventurer of 
 adventurers, and by his own account, had been 
 born into adventure. Descended from old New 
 England stock, his father a consul-general, he 
 had been born in Germany, in which country he 
 had received his early education and his ac- 
 cent. Then, still a boy, he had re-joined his 
 father in Turkey, and accompanied him later 
 to Persia, his father having been appointed 
 Minister to that country. 
 
 Tudor had always been a wanderer, and with 
 facile wit and quick vivid description, he leaped 
 from episode and place to episode and place, 
 relating his experiences seemingly, not because 
 they were his, but for the sake of their bizarre- 
 ness and uniqueness, for the unusual incident or 
 the laughable situation. He had gone through 
 South American revolutions, been a Rough Rider 
 in Cuba, a scout in South Africa, a war corre- 
 spondent in the Russo-Japanese war. He had 
 mushed dogs in the Klondike, washed gold from 
 the sands of Nome, and edited a newspaper in 
 
194 ADVENTURE 
 
 San. Francisco. The President of the United 
 States was his friend. He was equally at home 
 in the clubs of London and the Continent, the 
 Grand Hotel at Yokohama, and the selectors' 
 shanties in the Never-Never country. He had 
 shot big game in Siam, pearled in the Paumotus, 
 visited Tolstoy, seen the Passion Play, and 
 crossed the Andes on mule-back ; while he was a 
 living directory of the fever holes of West Africa. 
 Sheldon leaned back in his chair on the, ver- 
 anda, sipping his coffee and listening. In spite 
 of himself he felt touched by the charm of a man 
 who had led so varied a life. And yet Sheldon 
 was not comfortable. It seemed to him that the 
 man addressed himself particularly to Joan. 
 His words and smiles were directed impartially 
 toward both of them, yet Sheldon was certain, 
 had the two men of them been alone, that the 
 conversation would have been along different 
 lines. Tudor had seen the effect on Joan and 
 deliberately continued the flow of reminiscence, 
 netting her in the glamor of romance. Sheldon 
 watched her rapt attention, listened to her 
 spontaneous laughter, quick questions, and 
 
ADVENTURE 195 
 
 passing judgments, and felt grow .withiaYliim 
 the dawning consciousfidssathat he lb"©ed" her. 
 
 So he was very quiet and almost sad, though 
 at times he was aware of a distinct irritation 
 against his guest, and he even speculated as to 
 what percentage of Tudor's tale was true and 
 how any of it could be proved or disproved. 
 In this connection,' as if the scene had been 
 prepared by a clever playwright, Utami came 
 upon the veranda to report to Joan the capture 
 of a crocodile in the trap they had made 
 for her. 
 
 Tudor's face, illuminated by the match with 
 which he was lighting his cigarette, caught 
 Utami's eye, and Utami forgot to report to his 
 mistress. 
 
 "Hello, Tudor," he said, with a familiarity that 
 startled Sheldon. 
 
 The Polynesian's hand went out, and Tudor, 
 shaking it, was staring into his face. 
 
 "Who is it ?" he asked. "I can't see you." 
 
 "Utami." 
 
 "And who the dickens is Utami ? Where did 
 I ever meet you, my man ?" 
 
196 ADVENTURE 
 
 "Youiho. forget the Huahine?" Utami chided. 
 "Last 'tkim(Huahineisaiihh'^' 
 
 Tudor gripped the Tahitian's hand a second 
 time and shook it with genuine heartiness. 
 
 "There was only one kanaka who came out of 
 the Huahine that last voyage, and that kanaka 
 was Joe. The deuce take it, man, I'm glad to 
 see you, though I never heard your new name 
 before." 
 
 "Yes, everybody speak me Joe along the 
 Huahine. Utami my name all the time, just 
 the same." 
 
 "But what are you doing here?" Tudor 
 asked, releasing the sailor's hand and leaning 
 eagerly forward. 
 
 "Me sail along Missie Lackalanna her 
 schooner Miele. We go Tahiti, Raiatea, Tahaa, 
 Bora-Bora, Manua, Tutuila, Apia, Savaii, and 
 Fiji islands — plenty Fiji islands. Me stop 
 along Missie Lackalanna in Solomons. Very 
 soon she catch another schooner." 
 
 "He and I were the two survivors of the wreck 
 of the Huahine," Tudor explained to the others. 
 "Fifty-seven all told on board when we sailed 
 
ADVENTURE 197 
 
 from Huapa, and Joe and I were the only two 
 that ever set foot on land again. Hurricane, 
 you know, in the Paumotus. That was when I 
 was after pearls." 
 
 "And you never told me, Utami, that you'd 
 been wrecked in a hurricane," Joan said re- 
 proachfully. 
 
 The big Tahjtian shifted his weight and flashed 
 his teeth in a conciliating smile. 
 
 "Me no t'ink nothing 't all," he said. 
 
 He half turned, as if to depart, by his manner 
 indicating that he considered it time to go while 
 yet he desired to remain. 
 
 "All right, Utami," Tudor said, " I'll see you 
 in the morning and have a yarn," 
 
 "He saved my life, the beggar," Tudor ex- 
 plained, as the Tahitian strode away ajxd with 
 heavy softness of foot went down the steps. 
 "Swim ! I never met a better swimmer." 
 
 Arid thereat, solicited by Joan, Tudor narrated 
 the wreck of the Huahine, while Sheldon smoked 
 and pondered, and decided that whatever the 
 man's shortcomings were, he was at least not a 
 liar. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 A MATTER OF TRAINING 
 
 THE days passed, and Tudor seemed loath 
 to leave the hospitality of Berande. 
 Everything was ready for the start, but 
 he lingered on, spending much time in Joan's 
 company and thereby increasing the dislike 
 Sheldon had taken to him. He went swimming 
 with her, in point of rashness exceeding her ; 
 and dynamited fish with her, diving among the 
 hungry ground-sharks and contesting with them 
 for possession of the stunned prey, until he earned 
 the approval of the whole Tahitian crew. Arahu 
 challenged him to tear a fish from a shark's 
 jaws, leaving half to the shark and bringing the 
 other half himself to the surface; and Tudor 
 performed the feat, a flip from the sandpaper 
 hide of the astonished shark scraping several 
 inches of skin from his shoulder. And Joan was 
 delighted, while Sheldon, looking on, realized 
 
 igS 
 
ADVENTURE 199 
 
 that here was the hero of her adventure-dreams 
 coming true. She did not care for love, but he 
 felt that if ever she did love, it would be that 
 sort of a man — "a man who exhibited," was his 
 way of putting it. 
 
 He felt himself handicapped in the presence 
 of Tudor, who had the gift of making a show 
 of all his qualities. Sheldon knew himself for 
 a brave man, wherefore he made no advertise- 
 ment of the fact. He knew that just as readily 
 as the other would he dive among ground-sharks 
 to save a life, but in that fact he could find no 
 sanction for the foolhardy act of diving among 
 sharks for the half of a fish. The difference 
 between them was that he kept the curtain of 
 his shop-window down. Life pulsed steadily 
 and deep in him, and it was not his nature 
 needlessly to agitate the surface so that the 
 world could see the splash he was making. 
 And the effect of the other's amazing exhibi- 
 tions was to make him retreat more deeply 
 within himself and wrap himself more thickly 
 than ever in the nerveless, stoical calm of his 
 race. 
 
20O ADVENTURE 
 
 "You are so stupid the last few days," Joan 
 complained to him. "One would think you 
 were sick, or bilious, or something. You don't 
 seem to have an idea in your head above black 
 labor and cocoanuts. What is the matter ?" 
 
 Sheldon smiled and beat a further retreat 
 within himself, listening the while to Joan and 
 Tudor propounding the theory of the strong 
 arm by which the white man ordered life among 
 the lesser breeds. As he listened, Sheldon 
 realized, as by revelation, that that was pre- 
 cisely what he was doing. While they philoso- 
 phized about it, he was living it, placing the 
 strong hand of his race firmly on the shoulders 
 of the lesser breeds that labored on Berande or 
 menaced it from afar. But why talk about it ? 
 he asked himself. It was sufficient to do it 
 and be done with it. 
 
 He said as much, dryly and quietly, and 
 found himself involved in a discussion, with Joan 
 and Tudor siding against him, in which a more 
 astounding charge than ever he had dreamed 
 of was made against the very English control 
 and reserve of which he was secretly proud. 
 
ADVENTURE 201 
 
 "The Yankees talk a lot about what they do 
 and have done," Tudor said, "and are looked 
 down upon by the English as braggarts. But 
 the Yankee is only a child. He does not know 
 effectually how to brag. He talks about it, 
 you see. But the Englishman goes him one 
 better by not talking about it. The English- 
 man's proverbial lack of bragging is a subtler 
 form of brag after all. It is really clever, as 
 you will agree." 
 
 "I never thought of it before," Joan cried. 
 "Of course. An Englishman performs some 
 terrifically heroic exploit, and is very modest 
 and reserved, refuses to talk about it at all — 
 and the effect is that by his silence he as much 
 as says, 'I do things like this every day. It is 
 as easy as rolling off a log. You ought to see 
 the really heroic things I could do if they ever 
 came my way. But this little thing, this little 
 episode, really, don't you know, I fail to see 
 anything in it remarkable or unusual.' As for 
 me, if I went up in a powder explosion or saved 
 a hundred lives, I'd want all my friends to hear 
 about it, and their friends as well. I'd be 
 
202 ADVENTURE 
 
 prouder than Lucifer over the affair. Confess, 
 Mr. Sheldon, don't you feel proud down inside 
 when you've done something daring or cour- 
 ageous ?" 
 
 Sheldon nodded. 
 
 "Then," she pressed home the point, "isn't 
 disguising that pride under a mask of careless 
 indifference equivalent to telling a lie ?" 
 
 "Yes, it is," he admitted. "But we tell 
 similar lies every day. It is a matter of train- 
 ing, and the English are better trained, that is 
 all. Your countrymen will be trained as well 
 in time. As Mr. Tudor said, the Yankees are 
 young." 
 
 "Thank goodness we haven't begun to tell 
 such lies yet !" was Joan's ejaculation. 
 
 "Oh, but you have," Sheldon said quickly. 
 "You were telling me a lie of that order only 
 the other day. You remember when you were 
 going up the lantern-halyards hand over hand ? 
 Your face was the personification of duplicity." 
 
 "It was no such thing." 
 
 "Pardon me a moment," he went on. "Your 
 face was as calm and peaceful as though you 
 
ADVENTURE 203 
 
 were reclining in a steamer chair. To look at 
 your face one would have inferred that carry- 
 ing the weight of your body up a rope hand 
 over hand was a very commonplace accomplish- 
 ment, as easy as rolling off a log. And you 
 needn't tell me, Miss Lackland, that you didn't 
 make faces the first time you tried to climb a 
 rope. But like any circus athlete, you trained 
 yourself out of the face-making period. You 
 trained your face to hide your feelings, to hide 
 the exhausting effort your muscles were making. 
 It was, to quote Mr. Tudor, a subtler exhibi- 
 tion of physical prowess. And that is all our 
 English reserve is — a mere matter of training. 
 Certainly we are proud inside of the things we 
 do and have done — proud as Lucifer, yes, and 
 prouder. But we have grown up and no longer 
 talk about such things." 
 
 "I surrender," Joan cried. "You are not so 
 stupid after all." 
 
 "Yes, you have us there," Tudor admitted. 
 "But you wouldn't have had us if you hadn't 
 broken your training rules." 
 
 "How do you mean ?", 
 
204 ADVENTURE 
 
 "By talking about it." 
 
 Joan clapped her hands in approval. Tudor 
 lighted a fresh cigarette, while Sheldon sat on, 
 imperturbably silent. 
 
 "He got you there," Joan challenged. "Why 
 don't you crush him ?" 
 
 "Really, I can't think of anything to say," 
 Sheldon said. "I know my position is sound, 
 and that is satisfactory enough." 
 
 "You might retort," she suggested, "that 
 when an adult is with kindergarten children, he 
 must descend to kindergarten idioms in order 
 to make himself intelligible. That was why 
 you broke training rules. It was the only way 
 to make us children understand." 
 
 "You've deserted in the heat of the battle. 
 Miss Lackland, and gone over to the enemy," 
 Tudor said plaintively. 
 
 But she was not listening. Instead, she was 
 looking intently across the compound and out 
 to sea. They followed her gaze and saw a green 
 light and the loom of a vessel's sails. 
 
 "I wonder if it's the Martha come back," 
 Tudor hazarded. 
 
ADVENTURE 205 
 
 "No, the sidelight is too low," Joan answered. 
 "Besides, they've got the sweeps out. Don't 
 you hear them ? They wouldn't be sweeping a 
 big vessel like the Martha." 
 
 "Besides, the Martha.hSiS a gasolene engine — 
 twenty-five horse-power," Tudor added. 
 
 "Just the sort of a craft for us," Joan said 
 wistfully to Sheldon. "I really must see if I 
 can't get a schooner with an engine. I might 
 get a second-hand engine put in." 
 
 "That would mean the additional expense of 
 an engineer's wages," he objected. 
 
 "But it would pay for itself by quicker 
 passages," she argued. "And it would be as 
 good as insurance. I know. I've knocked 
 about amongst reefs myself. Besides, if you 
 weren't so mediseval, I could be skipper and 
 save more than the engineer's wages." 
 
 He did not reply to her thrust, and she glanced 
 at him. He was looking out over the water, 
 and in the lantern light she noted the lines of 
 his face — strong, stern, dogged, the mouth 
 almost chaste but firmer and thinner-lipped 
 than Tudor's. For the first time she realized 
 
2o6 ADVENTURE 
 
 the quality of his strength, the calm and quiet 
 of it, its simple integrity and reposeful deter- 
 mination. She glanced quickly at Tudor on 
 the other side of her. It was a handsomer face, 
 one that was more immediately pleasing. But 
 she did not like the mouth. It was made for 
 kissing, and she abhorred kisses. This was not a 
 deliberately achieved concept ; it came to her in 
 the form of a faint and vaguely intangible repul- 
 sion. For the moment she knew a fleeting 
 doubt of the man. Perhaps Sheldon was right 
 in his judgment of the other. She did not 
 know, and it concerned her little ; for boats, 
 and the sea, and the things and happenings of 
 the sea were of far more vital interest to her 
 than men, and the next moment she was star- 
 ing through the warm tropic darkness at the 
 loom of the sails and the steady green of the 
 moving sidelight, and listening eagerly to the 
 click of the sweeps in the rowlocks. In her 
 mind's eye she could see the straining naked 
 forms of black men bending rhythmically to the 
 work, and somewhere on that strange deck she 
 knew was the inevitable master-man, conning 
 
ADVENTURE 207 
 
 the vessel into its anchorage, peering at the dim 
 tree line of the shore, judging the deceitful 
 night distances, feeling on his cheek the first 
 fans of the land breeze that was even then 
 beginning to blow, weighing, thinking, meas- 
 uring, gauging the score or more of ever shifting 
 forces through which, by which, and in spite of 
 which, he directed the steady equilibrium of 
 his course. She knew it because she loved it,, 
 and she was alive to it as only a sailor could be. 
 Twice she heard the splash of the lead, and 
 listened intently for the cry that followed. 
 Once, a man's voice spoke, low, imperative, 
 issuing an order, and she thrilled with the 
 delight of it. It was only a direction to the 
 man at the wheel to port his helm. She watched 
 the slight altering of the course, and knew that 
 it was for the purpose of enabling the flat- 
 hauled sails to catch those first fans of the land 
 breeze, and she waited for the same low voice 
 to utter the one word " Steady ! " And again 
 she thrilled when it did utter it. Once more 
 the lead splashed, and "eleven fadom" was the 
 resulting cry. "Let go !" the low voice came 
 
2o8 ADVENTURE 
 
 to her through the darkness, followed by the 
 surging rumble of the anchor-chain. The click- 
 ing of the sheaves in the blocks as the sails ran 
 down, head-sails first, was music to her; and 
 she detected on the instant the jamming of a 
 jib downhaul and almost saw the impatient jerk 
 with which the sailor must have cleared it. 
 Nor did she take interest in the two men beside 
 her, till both lights, red and green, came into 
 view as the anchor checked the onward way. 
 
 Sheldon was wondering as to the identity of 
 the craft, while Tudor persisted in believing it 
 might be the Martha. 
 
 "It's the Minerva,''^ Joan said decidedly. 
 
 "How do you know ?" Sheldon asked, scep- 
 tical of her certitude. 
 
 "It's a ketch to begin with. And besides, I 
 could tell anywhere the rattle of her main 
 peak-blocks — they're too large for the hal- 
 yard." 
 
 A dark figure crossed the compound diagonally 
 from the beach gate where whoever it was had 
 been watching the vessel. 
 
 "Is that you, Utami ?" Joan called. 
 
ADVENTURE 209 
 
 "No, Missie; me Matapuu," was the answer. 
 
 "What vessel is it?" 
 
 "Me t'ink Minerva" 
 
 Joan looked triumphantly at Sheldon, who 
 bowed. 
 
 "If Matapuu says so, it must be so," he 
 murmured. 
 
 "But when Joan Lackland says so, you 
 doubt," she cried, "just as you doubt her 
 ability as a skipper. But never mind, you'll 
 be sorry some day for all your unkindness. — 
 There's the boat lowering now, and in five 
 minutes we'll be shaking hands with Christian 
 Young." 
 
 Lalaperu brought out the glasses and cigar- 
 ettes, and the eternal whiskey and soda, and 
 before the five minutes were past, the gate 
 clicked and Christian Young, tawny and golden, 
 gentle of voice, and look, and hand, came up 
 the bungalow steps and joined them. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE GIRL WHO HAD NOT GROWN UP 
 
 NEWS, as usual, Christian Young brought 
 — news of the drinking at Guvutu 
 where the men boasted that they drank 
 between drinks ; news of the new rifles adrift 
 on Ysabel, of the latest murders on Malaita, of 
 Tom Butler's sickness on Santa Ana ; and last 
 and most important, news that the Matambo 
 had gone on a reef in the Shortlands and would 
 be laid off one run for repairs. 
 
 "That means five weeks more before you can 
 sail for Sydney," Sheldon said to Joan. 
 
 "And that we are losing precious time," she 
 added ruefully. 
 
 " If you want to go to Sydney, the Upolu sails 
 from Tulagi to-morrow afternoon," Young said. 
 
 "But I thought she was running recruits for 
 the Germans in Sartioa," she objected. "At 
 any rate, I could catch her to Samoa and change 
 
ADVENTURE 211 
 
 at Apia to one of the Weir Line freighters. It's 
 a long way around, but still it would save time." 
 
 "This time the Upolu is going straight to 
 Sydney," Young explained. "She's going to 
 dry dock, you see; and you can catch her as 
 late as five to-morrow afternoon — at least, so 
 her first officer told me." 
 
 "But I've got to go to Guvutu first." Joan 
 looked at the men with a whimsical expression. 
 " I've some shopping to do. I can't wear these 
 Berande curtains into Sydney. I must buy 
 cloth at Guvutu and make myself a dress during 
 the voyage down. I'll start immediately — 
 in an hour. Lalaperu, you bring 'm one fella 
 Adamu Adam along me. Tell 'm that fella Orn- 
 firi make m' Kai-Kai take along whale-boat." 
 She rose to her feet, looking at Sheldon. "And 
 you, please, have the boys carry down the whale- 
 boat — my boat, you know. I'll be off in an 
 hour." 
 
 Both Sheldon and Tudor looked at their 
 watches. 
 
 "It's an all-night row," Sheldon said. "You 
 might wait till morning — " 
 
212 ADVENTURE 
 
 "And miss my shopping ? No, thank you. 
 Besides, the Upolu is not a regular passenger 
 steamer, and she is just as liable to sail ahead of 
 time as on time. And from what I hear about 
 those Guvutu sybarites, the best time to shop 
 will be in the morning. And now you'll have 
 to excuse me, for I've got to pack." 
 
 "I'll go over with you," Sheldon announced. 
 
 "Let me run you over in the Minerva" said 
 Young. 
 
 She shook her head, laughingly. 
 
 "I'm going in the whale-boat. One would 
 think, from all your solicitude, that I'd never 
 been away from home before. You, Mr. Shel- 
 don, as my partner, I cannot permit to desert 
 Berande and your work out of a mistaken 
 notion of courtesy. If you won't permit me to 
 be skipper, I won't permit your gallivanting over 
 the sea as protector of young women who don't 
 need protection. And as for you. Captain 
 Young, you know very well that you just left 
 Guvutu this morning, that you are bound for 
 Marau, and that you said yourself that in two 
 hours you are getting under way again." 
 
ADVENTURE 213 
 
 "But may I not see you safely across ?" 
 Tudor asked, a pleading note in his voice that 
 rasped on Sheldon's nerves. 
 
 "No, no, and again no," she cried. "You've 
 all got your work to do, and so have I. I came 
 to the Solomons to work, not to be escorted 
 about like a doll. For that matter, here's my 
 escort, and there are seven more like him." 
 
 Adamu Adam stood beside her, towering above 
 her, as he towered above the three white men. 
 The clinging cotton undershirt he wore could 
 not hide the bulge of his tremendous muscle. 
 
 "Look at his fist," said Tudor. "I'd hate to 
 receive a punch from it." 
 
 "I don't blame you." Joan laughed reminis- 
 cently. "I saw him hit the captain of a Swedish 
 bark on the beach at Levuka, in the Fijis. It 
 was the captain's fault. I saw it all myself, 
 and it was splendid. Adamu only hit him once, 
 and he broke the man's arm. You remember, 
 Adamu?" 
 
 The big Tahitian smiled and nodded, his 
 black eyes, soft and deerlike, seeming to give the 
 lie to so belligerent a nature. 
 
214 ADVENTURE 
 
 "We start in an hour in the whale-boat for 
 Guvutu, big brother," Joan said to him. "Tell 
 your brothers, all of them, so that they can get 
 ready. We catch the Upolu for Sydney. You 
 will all come along, and sail back to the Solomons 
 in the new schooner. Take your extra shirts 
 and dungarees along. Plenty cold weather 
 down there. Now run along, and tell them to 
 hurry. Leave the guns behind. Turn them 
 over to Mr. Sheldon. We won't need them." 
 
 "If you are really bent upon going — " 
 Sheldon began. 
 
 "That's settled long ago," she answered 
 shortly. " I'm going to pack now. But I'll tell 
 you what you can do for me — issue some 
 tobacco and other stuff they want to my men." 
 
 An hour later the three men had shaken hands 
 with Joan down on the beach. She gave the 
 signal, and the boats hoved off, six men at the 
 oars, the seventh man for'ard, and Adamu Adam 
 at the steering-sweep. Joan was standing up 
 in the sternsheets, reiterating her good-byes — 
 a slim figure of a woman in the tight-fitting 
 jacket she had worn ashore from the wreck, the 
 
ADVENTURE 215 
 
 long-barrelled Colt's revolver hanging from the 
 loose belt around her waist, her clear-cut face 
 like a boy's under the Stetson hat that failed to 
 conceal the heavy masses of hair beneath. 
 
 "You'd better get into shelter," she called to 
 them. "There's a big squall coming. And I 
 hope you've got plenty of chain out. Captain 
 Young. Good-by ! Good-by, everybody ! " 
 
 Her last words came out of the darkness, 
 which wrapped itself solidly about the boat. 
 Yet they continued to stare into the blackness 
 in the direction in which the boat had disap- 
 peared, listening to the steady click of the oars 
 in the rowlocks until it faded away and ceased. 
 
 "She is only a girl," Christian Young said 
 with slow solemnity. The discovery seemed to 
 have been made on the spur of the moment. 
 "She is only a girl," he repeated with greater 
 solemnity. 
 
 "A dashed pretty one, and a good traveller," 
 Tudor laughed. "She certainly has spunk, eh, 
 Sheldon?" 
 
 "Yes, she is brave," was the reluctant answer; 
 for Sheldon did not feel disposed to talk about her. 
 
2i6 ADVENTURE 
 
 "That's the American of it," Tudor went on; 
 " — push, and go, and energy, and indepen- 
 dence. What do you think, skipper ?" 
 
 " I think she is young, very young, only a girl," 
 replied the captain of the Minerva, continuing 
 to stare into the blackness that hid the sea. 
 
 The blackness seemed suddenly to increase 
 in density, and they stumbled up the beach, 
 feeling their way to the gate. 
 
 "Watch out for nuts," Sheldon warned, as 
 the first blast of the squall shrieked through the 
 palms. They joined hands and staggered up 
 the path, with the ripe cocoanuts thudding in a 
 monstrous rain all around them. They gained 
 the veranda, where they sat in silence over their 
 whiskey, each man staring straight out to sea 
 where the wildly swinging riding-light of the 
 Minerva could be seen in the lulls of the driving 
 rain. 
 
 Somewhere out there, Sheldon reflected, was 
 Joan Lackland, the girl who had not grown up, 
 the woman good to look upon, with only a boy's 
 mind and a boy's desires, leaving Berande amid 
 storm and conflict in much the same manner 
 
ADVENTURE 217 
 
 that she had first arrived, in the sternsheets of 
 her whale-boat. Adamu Adam steering, her 
 savage crew bending to the oars. And she was 
 taking her Stetson hat with her, along with the 
 cartridge-belt and the long-barrelled revolver. 
 He suddenly discovered an immense affection 
 for those fripperies of hers at which he had 
 secretly laughed when first' he saw them. He 
 became aware of the sentimental direction in 
 which his fancy was leading him, and felt in- 
 clined to laugh. But he did not laugh. The 
 next moment he was busy visioning the hat, and 
 belt, and revolver. Undoubtedly this was love, 
 he thought, and he felt a tiny glow of pride 
 that the Solomons had not succeeded in killing 
 all his sentiment. 
 
 An hour later. Christian Young stood up, 
 knocked out his pipe, and prepared to go aboard 
 and get under way. 
 
 "She's all right," he said, apropos of nothing 
 spoken, and yet distinctly relevant to what was 
 in each of their minds. " She's got a good boat's 
 crew, and she's a sailor herself. Good night, 
 Mr. Sheldon. Anything I can do for you down 
 
2i8 ADVENTURE 
 
 Marau way?" He turned and pointed to a 
 widening space of starry sky. " It's going to be 
 a fine night after all. With this favoring bit of 
 breeze she has sail on already, and she'll make 
 Guvutu by daylight. Good night." 
 
 "I guess I'll turn in, old man," Tudor said, 
 rising and placing his glass on the table. "I'll 
 start the first thing in the morning. It's been 
 disgraceful the way I've been hanging on here. 
 Good night." 
 
 Sheldon, sitting on alone, wondered if the 
 other man would have decided to pull out in the 
 morning had Joan not sailed away. Well, 
 there was one bit of consolation in it : Joan had 
 certainly lingered at Berande for no man, not 
 even Tudor. "I start in an hour" — her words 
 rang in his brain, and under his eyelids he could 
 see her as she stood up and uttered them. He 
 smiled. The instant she heard the news she 
 had made up her mind to go. It was not very 
 flattering to man, but what could any man 
 count in her eyes when a schooner waiting to 
 be bought in Sydney was in the wind ? What 
 a creature ! What a creature ! 
 
ADVENTURE 219 
 
 Berande was a lonely place to Sheldon in the 
 days that followed. In the morning after 
 Joan's departure, he had seen Tudor's expedi- 
 tion off on its way up the Balesuna ; in the late 
 afternoon, through his telescope, he had seen 
 the smoke of the Upolu that was bearing Joan 
 away to Sydney; and in the evening he sat 
 down to dinner in solitary state, devoting more 
 of his time to looking at her empty chair than 
 to his food. He never came out on the veranda 
 without glancing first of all at her grass house in 
 the corner of the compound ; and one evening, 
 idly knocking the balls about on the billiard- 
 table, he came to himself to find himself stand- 
 ing staring at the nail upon which from the first 
 she had hung her Stetson hat and her revolver- 
 belt. 
 
 Why should he care for her ? he demanded of 
 himself, angrily. She was certainly the last 
 woman in the world he would have thought of 
 choosing for himself. Never had he encountered 
 one who had so thoroughly irritated him, rasped 
 his feelings, smashed his conventions, and vio- 
 lated nearly every attribute of what had been his 
 
220 ADVENTURE 
 
 ideal of woman. Had he been too long away 
 from the world ? Had he forgotten what the 
 race of women was like ? Was it merely a case of 
 propinquity ? And she wasn't really a woman. 
 She was a masquerader. Under all her seeming 
 of woman, she was a boy, playing a boy's pranks, 
 diving for fish amongst sharks, sporting a 
 revolver, longing for adventure, and, what was 
 more, going out in search of it in her whale-boat, 
 along with her savage islanders and her bag of 
 sovereigns. But he loved her — that was the 
 point of it all, and he, did not try to evade it. 
 He was not sorry that it was so. He loved her 
 — that was the overwhelming, astounding fact. 
 Once again he discovered a big enthusiasm for 
 Berande. All the bubble-illusions concerning 
 the life of the tropical planter had been pricked 
 by the stern facts of the Solomons. Following 
 the death of Hughie, he had resolved to muddle 
 along somehow with the plantation; but this 
 resolve had not been based upon desire. In- 
 stead, it was based upon the inherent stubborn- 
 ness of his nature and his dislike to give over an 
 attempted task. But now it was different. 
 
ADVENTURE 221 
 
 Berande meant everything. It must succeed 
 — not merely because Joan was a partner in it, 
 but because he wanted to make that partnership 
 permanently binding. Three more years and 
 the plantation would be a splendid-paying 
 investment. They could then take yearly trips 
 to Australia, and oftener; and an occasional 
 run home to England — or Hawaii — would 
 come as a matter of course. 
 
 He spent his evenings poring over accounts, 
 or making endless calculations based on cheaper 
 freights for copra and on the possible maximum 
 and minimum market-prices for that staple of 
 commerce. His days were spent out on the 
 plantation. He undertook more clearing of 
 bush ; and clearing and planting went on, under 
 his personal supervision, at a faster pace than 
 ever before. He experimented with premiums 
 for extra work performed by the black boys, 
 and yearned continually for more of them to put 
 to work. Not until Joan could return on the 
 schooner would this be possible, for the profes- 
 sional recruiters were all under long contracts to 
 the Fulcrum Brothers, Morgan & Raff, and the 
 
222 ADVENTURE 
 
 Fires, Philp Company; while the Flibberty- 
 Gibbet was wholly occupied in running about 
 among his widely scattered trading stations, 
 which extended from the coast of New Georgia 
 in one direction, to Ulava and Sikiana in the 
 other. Blacks he must have, and, if Joan were 
 fortunate in getting a schooner, three months at 
 least must elapse before the first recruits could 
 be landed on Berande. 
 
 A week after the Upolu^s departure, the Mala- 
 ^tt/fl dropped anchor, and her skipper came ashore 
 for a game of billiards, and to gossip, until the 
 land breeze sprang up. Besides, as he told his ' 
 supercargo, he simply had to come ashore, not 
 merely to deliver the large package of seeds, 
 with full instructions for planting from Joan, 
 but to shock Sheldon with the little surprise 
 born of information he was bringing with 
 him. 
 
 Captain Auckland played the billiards first, 
 and it was not until he was comfortably seated 
 in a steamer chair, his second whiskey securely 
 in his hand, that he let off his bomb. 
 
 "A great piece, that Miss Lackland of yours," 
 
ADVENTURE 223 
 
 he chuckled, "Claims to be a part-owner of 
 Berande. Says she's your partner. Is that 
 straight?" 
 
 Sheldon nodded coldly. 
 
 "You don't say ? That is a surprise ! Well, 
 she hasn't convinced Guvutu or Tulagi of it. 
 They're pretty used to irregular things over 
 there, but — ha! ha! — " he stopped to have 
 his laugh out and to mop his bald head with a 
 trade handkerchief. " But that partnership yarn 
 of hers was too big to swallow, though it gave 
 them the excuse for a few more drinks." 
 
 "There is nothing irregular about it. It is an 
 ordinary business transaction." Sheldon strove 
 to act as though such transactions were quite 
 the commonplace thing on plantations in the 
 Solomons. "She invested something like fif- 
 teen hundred pounds in Berande — " 
 
 "So she said." 
 
 "And she has gone to Sydney on business for 
 the plantation." 
 
 "Oh, no, she hasn't." 
 
 "I beg pardon ?" Sheldon queried. 
 
 "I said she hasn't, that's all." 
 
224 ADVENTURE 
 
 "But didn't the Upolu sail ? I could have 
 sworn I saw her smoke last Tuesday afternoon, 
 late, as she passed Savo." 
 
 "The Upolu sailed all right." Captain Auck- 
 land sipped his whiskey with provoking slowness. 
 "Only Miss Lackland wasn't a passenger." 
 
 "Then where is she?" 
 
 "At Guvutu, last I saw of her. She was 
 going to Sydney to buy a schooner, wasn't she ? " 
 
 "Yes, yes." 
 
 "That's what she said. Well, she's bought 
 one, though I wouldn't give her ten shillings for 
 it if a nor'wester blows up, and it's about time 
 we had one. This has been too long a spell of 
 good weather to last." 
 
 " If you came here to excite my curiosity, old 
 man," Sheldon said, "you've certainly succeeded. 
 Now go ahead and tell me in a straightforward 
 Way what has happened. What schooner ? 
 Where is it ? How did she happen to buy it ?" 
 
 "First, the schooner Martha," the skipper 
 answered, checking his replies off on his fingers. 
 "Second, the Martha is on the outside reef at 
 Poonga-Poonga, looted clean of everything port- 
 
ADVENTURE 225 
 
 able and ready to go to pieces with the first bit 
 of lively sea. And third, Miss Lackland bought 
 her at auction. She was knocked down to her 
 for fifty-five quid by the third assistant resi- 
 dent commissioner. I ought to know. I bid 
 fifty myself, for Morgan and Raff. My word, 
 weren't they hot ! I told them to go to the 
 devil, and that it was their fault for limiting me 
 to fifty quid when they thought the chance to 
 salve the Martha was worth more. You see, 
 they weren't expecting competition. Fulcrum 
 Brothers had no representative present, neither 
 had Fires, Philp Company, and the only man to 
 be afraid of was Nielsen's agent. Squires, and 
 him they got drunk and sound asleep over in 
 Guvutu. 
 
 " * Twenty,' says I, for my bid. 'Twenty-five,' 
 says the little girl. 'Thirty,' says I. 'Forty,' 
 says she. 'Fifty,' says I. 'Fifty-five,' says she. 
 And there I was stuck. 'Hold on,' says I; 
 'wait till I see my owners.' 'No you don't,' says 
 she. 'It's customary,' says I. 'Not anywhere 
 in the world,' says she. 'Then it's courtesy in 
 the Solomons,' says I. 
 
226 ADVENTURE 
 
 "And d'ye know, on my faith, I think Burnett'd 
 have done it, only she pipes up, sweet and pert 
 as you please : 'Mr. Auctioneer, will you kindly 
 proceed with the sale in the customary manner ? 
 I've other business to attend to, and I can't 
 afford to wait all night on men who don't know 
 their own minds.' And then she smiles at Bur- 
 nett, as, well — you know, one of those fetching 
 smiles, and damme, if Burnett doesn't begin 
 singing out : ' Goin', goin', goin' — last bid — 
 goin', goin' for fifty-five sovereigns — goin', goin', 
 gone — to you, Miss — er — what name, please ? ' 
 
 "'Joan Lackland,' says she, with a smile to 
 me; and that's how she bought the Martha." 
 
 Sheldon experienced a sudden thrill. The 
 Martha ! — a finer schooner than the Malakula, 
 and, for that matter, the finest in the Solomons. 
 She was just the thing for recruits, and she was 
 right on the spot. Then he realized that for 
 such a craft to sell at auction for fifty-five pounds 
 meant that there was small chance for saving her. 
 
 "But how did it happen .?" he asked. 
 "Weren't they rather quick in selling the 
 Martha?" 
 
ADVENTURE 227 
 
 "Had to. You know the reef at Poonga- 
 Poonga, She's not worth tuppence on it if any 
 kind of a sea kicks up, and it's ripe for a nor'- 
 wester any moment now. The crowd abandoned 
 her completely. Didn't even dream of auction- 
 ing her. Morgan and Raff persuaded them to 
 put her up. They're a cooperative crowd, 
 you know, an organized business corporation, fore 
 and aft, all hands and the cook. They held a 
 meeting and voted to sell." 
 
 "But why didn't they stand by and try to save 
 her?" 
 
 "Stand by! You know Malaita. And you 
 know Poonga-Poonga. That's where they cut 
 off the Scottish Chiefs and killed all hands. 
 There was nothing to do but take to the boats. 
 The Martha missed stays going in, and inside 
 five minutes she was on the reef and in pos- 
 session. The niggars swarmed over her, and 
 they just threw the crew into the boats. I 
 talked with some of the men. They swear 
 there were two hundred war-canoes around 
 her inside half an hour, and five thousand 
 bushmen on the beach. Said you couldn't 
 
228 ADVENTURE 
 
 see Malaita for the smoke of the signal fires. 
 Anyway, they cleared out for Tulagi." 
 
 " But why didn't they fight ?" Sheldon asked. 
 
 " It was funny they didn't, but they got sepa- 
 rated. You see, two-thirds of them were in the 
 boats, without weapons, running anchors and 
 never dreaming the natives would attack. They 
 found out their mistake too late. The natives 
 had charge. That's the trouble of new chums 
 on the coast. It would never have happened 
 with you or me or any old-timer." 
 
 "But what is Miss Lackland intending to do ?" 
 
 Captain Auckland grinned. 
 
 "She's going to try to get the Martha off, I 
 should say. Or else why did she pay fifty-five 
 quid for her ? And if she fails, she'll try to get 
 her money back by saving the gear-spars, you 
 know, and patent steering-gear, and winches, 
 such things. At least that's what I'd do if I 
 was in her place. When I sailed, the little girl 
 had chartered the Emily — ' I'm going recruit- 
 ing,' says Munster — he's the skipper and owner 
 now. 'And how much will you net on the 
 cruise ?' asks she. 'Oh, fifty quid,' says he. 
 
ADVENTURE 229 
 
 'Good,' says she; 'you bring your Emily along 
 with me and you'll get seventy-five.' You know 
 that big ship's anchor and chain piled up behind 
 the coal-sheds ? She was just buying that when 
 I left. She's certainly a hustler, that little girl 
 of yours." 
 
 "She is my partner," Sheldon corrected. 
 
 "Well, she's a good one, that's all, and a cool 
 one. My word ! a white woman on Malaita, 
 and at Poonga-Poonga of all places ! Oh, I forgot 
 to tell you — she palavered Burnett into lending 
 her eight rifles for her men, and three cases of 
 dynamite. You'd laugh to see the way she makes 
 that Guvutu gang stand around. And to see 
 them being polite and trying to give advice ! 
 Lord, Lord, man, that little girl's a wonder, a 
 marvel, a-a-a catastrophe. That's what she 
 is, a catastrophe. She's gone through Guvutu 
 and Tulagi like a hurricane ; every last swine of 
 them in love with her — except Raff. He's sore 
 over the auction, and he sprang his recruiting 
 contract with Munster on her. And what does 
 she do but thank him, and read it over, and point 
 out that while Munster was pledged to deliver 
 
230 ADVENTURE 
 
 all recruits to Morgan and Raff, there was no 
 clause in the document forbidding him from 
 chartering the Emily. 
 
 "'There's your contract,' says she, passing it 
 back. 'And a very good contract it is. The 
 next time you draw one up, insert a clause that 
 will fit emergencies like the present one.' And 
 Lord, Lord, she had him, too. 
 
 "But there's the breeze, and I'm off. Good- 
 by, old man. Hope the little girl succeeds. 
 The Martha's a whacking fine boat, and she'd 
 take the place of the Jessie." 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 "your" miss lackland 
 
 THE next morning Sheldon came in from 
 the plantation to breakfast, to find the 
 mission ketch, Apostle, at anchor, her crew 
 swimming two mares and a filly ashore. Sheldon 
 recognized the animals as belonging to the 
 Resident Commissioner, and he immediately 
 wondered if Joan had bought them. She was 
 certainly living up to her threat of rattling the 
 dry bones of the Solomons, and he was prepared 
 for anything. 
 
 "Miss Lackland sent them," said Welshmere, 
 the missionary doctor, stepping ashore and 
 shaking hands with him. "There's also a box 
 of saddles on board. And this letter from- her. 
 And the skipper of the Flibberty-Gibbet." 
 
 The next moment, and before he could 
 greet him, Oleson stepped from the boat and 
 began. 
 
 231 
 
232 ADVENTURE 
 
 "She's stolen the Flibherty, Mr. Sheldon. 
 Run clean away with her. She's a wild one. 
 She gave me the fever. Brought it on by 
 shock. And got me drunk, as well — rotten 
 drunk." 
 
 Dr. Welshmere laughed heartily. 
 
 "Nevertheless, she is not an unmitigated evil, 
 your Miss Lackland. She's sworn three men off 
 their drink, or, to the same purpose, shut off 
 their whiskey. You know them — Brahms, 
 Curtis, and Fowler. She shipped them on the 
 Flibberty-Gibbet along with her." 
 
 "She's the skipper of the Flibberty now," 
 Oleson broke in. "And she'll wreck her as sure 
 as God didn't make the Solomons." 
 
 Dr. Welshmere tried to look shocked, but 
 laughed again. 
 
 "She has quite a way with her," he said. "I 
 tried to back out of bringing the horses over. 
 Said I couldn't charge freight, that the Apostle 
 was under a yacht license, that I was going 
 ' around by Savo and the upper end of Guadalca- 
 nar. But it was no use. 'Bother the charge,' 
 said she. 'You take the horses like a good man, 
 
ADVENTURE 233 
 
 and when I float the Martha, I'll return the ser- 
 vice some day.' " 
 
 "And 'bother your orders,' said she to me," 
 Oleson cried. . "'I'm your boss now,' said she, 
 'and you take your orders from me.' 'Look at 
 the load of ivory nuts,' I said. 'Bother them,' 
 said she ; ' I'm playin' for something bigger 
 than ivory nuts. We'll dump them overside as 
 soon as we get under way.'" 
 
 Sheldon put his hands to his ears. 
 
 "I don't know what has happened, and you 
 are trying to tell me the tale backwards. Come 
 up to the house and get in the shade and begin at 
 the beginning." 
 
 "What I want to know," Oleson began, when 
 they were seated, "is, is she your partner or ain't 
 she ? That's what I want to know," 
 
 " She is," Sheldon assured him. 
 
 "Well, who'd have believed it!" Oleson 
 glanced appealingly at Dr. Welshmere, and back 
 again at Sheldon. "I've seen a few unlikely 
 things in these Solomons — rats two feet long, 
 butterflies the Commissioner hunts with a shot- 
 gun, ear-ornaments that would shame the devil. 
 
234 ADVENTURE 
 
 and head-hunting devils that make the devil look 
 like an angel. I've seen them and got used to 
 them, but this young woman of yours — " 
 
 "Miss Lackland is my partner and part-owner 
 of Berande," Sheldon interrupted. 
 
 "So she said," the irate skipper dashed on. 
 "But she had no papers to show for it. How 
 was I to know ? And then there was that load of 
 ivory nuts — eight tons of them." 
 
 "For heaven's sake begin at the — " Sheldon 
 tried to interrupt. 
 
 "And then she's hired them drunken loafers, 
 three of the worst scoundrels that ever disgraced 
 the Solomons — fifteen quid a month each — 
 what d'ye think of that ? And sailed away with 
 them, too ! Phew ! — You might give me a 
 drink. , The missionary won't mind. I've been 
 on his teetotal hooker four days now, and I'm 
 perishing." 
 
 Dr. Welshmere nodded in reply to Sheldon's 
 look of inquiry, and Viaburi was despatched for 
 the whiskey and siphons. 
 
 "It is evident. Captain Oleson," Sheldon re- 
 marked to that refreshed mariner, "that Miss 
 
ADVENTURE 235 
 
 Lackland has run away with your boat. Now 
 please give a plain statement of what occurred." 
 
 " Right O; here goes. I'd just come in on the 
 Flibberty. She was on board before I dropped 
 the hook — in that whale-boat of hers with her 
 gang of Tahiti heathens — that big Adamu 
 Adam and the rest. 'Don't drop the anchor, 
 Captain Oleson,' she sang out. 'I want you 
 to get under way for Poonga-Poonga.' I looked 
 to see if she'd been drinking. What was I 
 to think .'' I was rounding up at the time, along- 
 side the shoal — a ticklish place — headsails 
 running down and losing way, so I says, 'Excuse 
 me. Miss Lackland,' and yells for'ard, 'Let go !' 
 
 "'You might have listened to me and saved 
 yourself trouble,' says she, climbing over the rail 
 and squinting along for'ard and seeing the first 
 shackle flip out and stop. 'There's fifteen 
 fathom,' says she; 'you may as well turn your 
 men to and heave up.' 
 
 "And then we had it out. I didn't believe her. 
 I didn't think you'd take her on as a partner, and 
 I told her as much and wanted proof. She got 
 high and mighty, and I told her I was old enough 
 
236 ADVENTURE 
 
 to be her grandfather and that I wouldn't take 
 gammon from a chit like her. And then I or- 
 dered her off the Flibberty. 'Captain Oleson,' 
 she says, sweet as you please, 'I've a few minutes 
 to spare on you, and I've got some good whiskey 
 over on the Emily. Come on along. Besides, I 
 want your advice about this wrecking business. 
 Everybody says you're a crackerjack sailor- 
 man' — that's what she said, 'crackerjack.' 
 And I went, in her whale-boat, Adamu Adam 
 steering and looking as solemn as a funeral. 
 
 "On the way she told me about the Martha, 
 and how she'd bought her, and was going to float 
 her. She said she'd chartered the Emily, and 
 was sailing as soon as I could get the Flibberty 
 under way. It struck me that her gammon was 
 reasonable enough, and I agreed to pull out for 
 Berande right O, and get your orders to go along 
 to Poonga-Poonga. But she said there wasn't 
 a second to be lost by any such foolishness, and 
 that I was to sail direct for Poonga-Poonga, 
 and that if I couldn't take her word that she was 
 your partner, she'd get along without me and the 
 Flibberty. And right there's where she fooled me. 
 
ADVENTURE 237 
 
 "Down in the Emily's cabin was them three 
 soaks — you know them — Fowler and Curtis 
 and that Brahms chap. 'Have a drink,' says 
 she. I thought they looked surprised when she 
 unlocked the whiskey locker and sent a nigger 
 for the glasses and water-monkey. But she 
 must have tipped them off unbeknownst to me, 
 and they knew just what to do. 'Excuse me,' 
 she says, 'I'm going on deck a minute.' Now 
 that minute was half an hour. I hadn't had a 
 drink in ten days. I'm an old man and the fever 
 has weakened me. Then I took it on an empty 
 stomach, too, and there was them three soaks 
 setting me an example, they arguing for me to 
 take the Flibberty to Poonga-Poonga, an' me 
 pointing out my duty to the contrary. The 
 trouble was, all the arguments were pointed with 
 drinks, and me not being a drinking man, so to 
 say, and weak from fever. 
 
 "Well, anyway, at the end of the half-hour 
 down she came again and took a good squint 
 at me. 'That'll do nicely,' I remember her say- 
 ing ; and with that she took the whiskey bottles 
 and hove them overside through the companion- 
 
238 ADVENTURE 
 
 way. 'That's the last,' slie said to the three 
 soaks, till the Marthh floats and you're back in 
 Guvutu. It'll be a long time between drinks.' 
 And then she laughed. 
 
 "She looked at me and said — not to me, mind 
 you, but to the soaks : ' It's time this worthy 
 man went ashore' — me/ worthy man ! 'Fow- 
 ler,' she said — you know, just like a straight 
 order, and she didn't mister him — it was plain 
 Fowler — 'Fowler,' she said, 'just tell Adamu 
 Adam to man the whale-boat, and while he's 
 taking Captain Oleson ashore, have your boat 
 put me on the Flibberty. The three of you sail 
 with me, so pack your dunnage. And the one of 
 you that shows up best will take the mate's 
 billet. Captain Oleson doesn't carry a mate, 
 you know.' 
 
 "I don't remember much after that. All 
 hands got me over the side, and it seems to me I 
 went to sleep, sitting in the sternsheets and 
 watching that Adamu steer. Then I saw the 
 Flibberty's mainsail hoisting, and heard the clank 
 of her chain coming in, and I woke up. 'Here, 
 put me on the Flibberty,' I said to Adamu. 'I 
 
ADVENTURE 239 
 
 put you on the beach,' said he. 'Missie Lacka- 
 lanna say beach plenty good for you.' Well, 
 I let out a yell and reached for the steering- 
 sweep. I was doing my best by my owners, you 
 see. Only that Adamu gives me a shove down on 
 the bottom boards, puts one foot on me to hold 
 me down, and goes on steering. And that's all. 
 The shock of the whole thing brought on fever. 
 And now I've come to find out whether I'm 
 skipper of the Flibherty or that chit of yours with 
 her pirating, heathen boat's crew." 
 
 "Never mind, skipper. You can take a 
 vacation on pay." Sheldon spoke with more 
 assurance than he felt. " If Miss Lackland, who 
 is my partner, has seen fit to take charge of the 
 Flibberty-Gibbet, why, it is all right. As you 
 will agree, there was no time to be lost if the 
 Martha was to be got off. It is a bad reef, 
 and any considerable sea would knock her 
 bottom out. You settle down here, skipper, and 
 rest up and get the fever out of your bones. 
 When the Flibberty-Gibbet comes back, you'll 
 take charge again, of course." 
 
 After Dr. Welshmere and the Apostle departed 
 
240 ADVENTURE 
 
 and Captain Oleson had turned in for a sleep 
 in a veranda hammock, Sheldon opened Joan's 
 letter : 
 
 Dear Mr. Sheldon: 
 
 Please forgive me for stealing the Flibberty-Gibbet. I 
 simply had to. The Martha means everything to us. 
 Thiiik of it, only fifty-five pounds for her, two hundred 
 and seventy-five dollars. If I don't save her, I know I 
 shall be able to pay all expenses out of her gear which the 
 natives will not have carried off. And if I do save her, it is 
 the haul of a lifetime. And if I don't save her, I'll fill the 
 Emily and the Flibberty-Gibbet with recruits. Recruits are 
 needed right now on Berande more than anything else. 
 
 And please, please don't be angry with me. You said 
 I shouldn't go recruiting on the Flibberty, and I won't. 
 I'll go on the Emily. 
 
 I bought two cows this afternoon. That trader at 
 Nogi died of fever, and I bought them from his partner, 
 Sam Willis his name is, who agrees to deliver them — 
 most likely by the Minerva nezt time she is down that way. 
 Berande has been long enough on tinned milk. 
 
 And Dr. Welshmere has agreed to get me some orange 
 and lime trees from the mission station at Ulava. He 
 will deliver them the next trip of the Apostle. If the 
 Sydney steamer arrives before I get back, plant the sweet 
 corn she will bring between the young trees on the high 
 bank of the Balesuna. The current is eating in against 
 that bank, and you should do something to save it. 
 
ADVENTURE 241 
 
 I have ordered some fig-trees and loquats, too, from 
 Sydney. Dr. Welshmere will bring some mango-seeds. 
 They are big trees and require pltenty of room. 
 
 The Martha is registered no tons. She is the biggest 
 schooner in the Solomons, and the best. I saw a little 
 of her lines and guess the rest. She will sail like a witch. 
 If she hasn't filled with water, her engine will be all 
 right. The reason she went ashore was because it was 
 not working. The engineer had disconnected' the feed- 
 pipes to clean out the rust. Poor business, unless at 
 anchor or with plenty of sea-room. 
 
 Plant all the trees in the compound, even if you have 
 to clean out the palms later on. 
 
 And don't plant the sweet corn all at once. Let a few 
 
 days elapse between plantings. 
 
 Joan Lackland. 
 
 He fingered the letter, lingering over it and 
 scrutinizing the writing in a way that was not 
 his wont. How characteristic, was his thought, 
 as he studied the boyish scrawl — clear to read, 
 painfully clear, but none the less boyish. The 
 clearness of it reminded him of her face, of her 
 cleanly stencilled brows, her straightly chiselled 
 nose, the very clearness of the gaze of her 
 eyes, the firmly yet delicately moulded lips, 
 and the throat, neither fragile nor robust, but 
 — but just right, he concluded, — an ade- 
 
242 ADVENTURE 
 
 quale and beautiful pillar for so shapely a 
 burden. 
 
 He looked long at the name. Joan Lack- 
 land — just an assemblage of letters, of common- 
 place letters, but an assemblage that generated 
 a subtle and heady magic. It crept into his 
 brain and twined and twisted his mental pro- 
 cesses until all that constituted him at that 
 moment went out in love to that scrawled 
 signature. A few commonplace letters — yet 
 they caused him to know in himself a lack that 
 sweetly hurt and that expressed itself in vague 
 spiritual outpourings and delicious yearnings. 
 Joan Lackland ! Each time he looked at it 
 there arose visions of her in a myriad moods 
 and guises : coming in out of the flying smother 
 of the gale that had wrecked her schooner; 
 launching a whale-boat to go a-fishing; run- 
 ning dripping from the sea, with streaming hair 
 and clinging garments, to the fresh-water shower ; 
 frightening fourscore cannibals with an empty 
 chlorodyne bottle; teaching Ornfiri how to 
 make bread ; hanging her Stetson hat and 
 revolver-belt on the hook in the living room; 
 
ADVENTURE 243 
 
 talking gravely about winning to hearth and 
 saddle of her own, or juvenilely rattling on about 
 romance and adventure, bright-eyed, her face 
 flushed and eager with enthusiasm. Joan Lack- 
 land ! He mused over the cryptic wonder of it 
 till the secrets of love were made clear and he 
 felt a keen sympathy for lovers who carved 
 their names on trees or wrote them on the 
 beach-sands of the sea. 
 
 Then he came back to reality, and his face 
 hardened. Even then she was on the wild 
 coast of Malaita, and at Poonga-Poonga, of all 
 villanous and dangerous portions the worst, 
 peopled with a teeming population of head- 
 hunters, robbers, and murderers. For the in- 
 stant he entertained the rash thought of calling 
 his boat's crew and starting immediately in a 
 whale-boat for Poonga-Poonga. But the next 
 instant the idea was dismissed. What could he 
 do if he did go ? First, she would resent it. 
 Next, she would laugh at him and call him a 
 silly; and after all he would count for only 
 one rifle more, and she had many rifles with her. 
 Three things only could he do if he went. He 
 
244 ADVENTURE 
 
 could command her to return; he could take 
 the Flihberty-Gibbet away from her; he could 
 dissolve their partnership ; any and all of 
 which he knew would be foolish and futile, and 
 he could hear her explain in terse set terms 
 that she was legally of age and that nobody 
 could say come or go to her. No, his pride 
 would never permit him to start for Poonga- 
 Poonga, though his heart whispered that noth- 
 ing could be more welcome than a message 
 from her asking him to come and lend a hand. 
 Her very words — "lend a hand"; and in his 
 fancy he could see and hear her saying them. 
 
 There was much in her wilful conduct that 
 caused him to wince in the heart of him. He 
 was appalled by the thought of her shoulder 
 to shoulder with the drunken rabble of traders 
 and beach-combers at Guvutu. It was bad 
 enough for a clean, fastidious man ; but for a 
 young woman, a girl at that, it was awful. 
 The theft of the Flibberty-Gibbet was merely 
 amusing, though the means by which the theft 
 had been effected gave him hurt. Yet he 
 found consolation in the fact that the task of 
 
ADVENTURE 245 
 
 making Oleson drunk had been turned over to 
 the three scoundrels. And next, and swiftly, 
 came the vision of her, alone with those same 
 three scoundrels, on the Emily, sailing out to 
 sea from Guvutu in the twilight with darkness 
 coming on. Then came visions of Adamu 
 Adam and Noa Noah and all her brawny 
 Tahitian following, and his anxiety faded away, 
 being replaced by irritation that she should have 
 been capable of such wildness of conduct. And 
 the irritation was still on him as he got up and 
 went inside to stare at the hook on the wall 
 and to wish that her Stetson hat and revolver- 
 belt were hanging from it. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 MAKING THE BOOKS COME TRUE 
 
 SEVERAL quiet weeks slipped by. Berande, 
 after such an unusual run of visiting 
 vessels, drifted back into her old solitude. 
 Sheldon went on with the daily round, clearing 
 bush, planting cocoanuts, smoking copra, build- 
 ing bridges, and riding about his work on the 
 horses Joan had bought. News of her he had 
 none. Recruiting vessels on Malaita left the 
 Poonga-Poonga coast severely alone ; and the 
 Clansman, a Samoan recruiter, dropping anchor 
 one sunset for billiards and gossip, reported 
 rumors amongst the Sio natives that there had 
 been fighting at Poonga-Poonga. As this news 
 would have had to travel right across the big 
 island, little dependence was to be placed on it. 
 The steamer from Sydney, the Kammambo, 
 broke the quietude of Beraiide for an hour, 
 while landing mail, supplies, and the trees and 
 
 246 
 
ADVENTURE 247 
 
 seeds Joan had ordered. The Minerva, bound 
 for Cape Marsh, brought the two cows from 
 Nogi. And the Apostle, hurrying back to 
 Tulagi to connect with the Sydney steamer, 
 sent a boat ashore with the orange and lime 
 trees from Ulavar And these several weeks 
 marked a period of perfect weather. There 
 were days on end when sleek calms ruled the 
 breathless sea, and days when vagrant wisps 
 of air fanned for several hours from one direc- 
 tion or another. The land breezes at night 
 alone proved regular, and it was at night that 
 the occasional cutters and ketches slipped by, 
 too eager to take advantage of the light winds 
 to drop anchor for an hour. 
 
 Then came the long-expected nor'wester. 
 For eight days it raged, lulling at times to short 
 durations of calm, then shifting a point or two 
 and raging with renewed violence. Sheldon 
 kept a precautionary eye on the buildings, 
 while the Balesuna, in flood, so savagely at- 
 tacked the high bank Joan had warned him 
 about, that he told off all the gangs to battle 
 with the river. 
 
248 ADVENTURE 
 
 It was in' the good weather that followed 
 that he left the blacks at work, one morning, 
 and with a shot-gun across his pommel rode off 
 after pigeons. Two hours later, one of the 
 house-boys, breathless and scratched, ran him 
 down with the news that the Martha, . the 
 Flibberty-Gibbet, and the Emily were heading in 
 for the anchorage. 
 
 Coming into the compound from the rear, 
 Sheldon could see nothing until he rode around 
 the corner of the bungalow. Then he saw 
 everything at once — first, a glimpse at the 
 sea, where the Martha floated huge alongside 
 the cutter and the ketch which had rescued 
 her; and, next, the ground in front of the 
 veranda steps, where a great crowd of fresh- 
 caught cannibals stood at attention. From the 
 fact that each was attired in a new, snow- 
 white lava-lava, Sheldon knew that they were 
 recruits. Part way up the steps, one of them 
 was just backing down into the crowd, while 
 another, called out by name, was coming up. 
 It was Joan's voice that had called him, and 
 Sheldon reined in his horse and watched. She 
 
ADVENTURE 249 
 
 sat at the head of the steps, behind a table, 
 between Munster and his white mate, the three 
 of them checking long lists, Joan asking the 
 questions and writing the answers in the big, 
 red-covered, Berande labor journal. 
 
 "What name?" she demanded of the black, 
 man on the steps. 
 
 "Tagari," came the answer, accompanied by 
 a grin and a rolling of curious eyes ; for it was the 
 first white man's house the black had ever seen. 
 
 "What place b'long you ?" 
 
 "Bangoora." 
 
 No one had noticed Sheldon, and he con- 
 tinued to sit his horse and watch. There was 
 a discrepancy between the answer and the 
 record in the recruiting books, and a conse- 
 quent discussion, until Munster solved the 
 difficulty. 
 
 "Bangoora ?" he said. "That's the little 
 beach at the head of the bay out of Latta. 
 He's down as a Latta man — see, there it is, 
 'Tagari, Latta.'" 
 
 "What place you govyou finish along white 
 marster ? " Joan asked. 
 
2SO ADVENTURE 
 
 "Bangoora," the man replied, and Joan wrote 
 it down. 
 
 "Ogu!" Joan called. 
 
 The black stepped down, and another mounted 
 to take his place. But Tagari, just before he 
 reached the bottom step, caught sight of Shel- 
 don. It was the first horse the fellow had ever 
 seen, and he let out a frightened screech and 
 dashed madly up the steps. At the same 
 moment the great mass of blacks surged away 
 panic-stricken from Sheldon's vicinity. The 
 grinning house-boys shouted encouragement and 
 explanation, and the stampede was checked, 
 the new-caught head-hunters huddling closely 
 together and staring dubiously at the fearful 
 monster. 
 
 "Hello!" Joan called out. "What do you 
 mean by frightening all my boys ? Come on 
 up." 
 
 "What do you think of them?" she asked, 
 when they had shaken hands. "And what do 
 you think of her V — with a wave of the hand 
 toward the Martha. "I thought you'd deserted 
 the plantation, and that I might as well go 
 
ADVENTURE 251 
 
 ahead and get the men into barracks. Aren't 
 they beauties ? Do you see that one with the 
 split nose ? He's the only man who doesn't 
 hail from the Poonga-Poonga coast; and they 
 said the Poonga-Poonga natives wouldn't re- 
 cruit. Just look at them and congratulate me. 
 There are no kiddies and half-grown youths 
 among them. They're men, every last one of 
 them. I have such a long story I don't know 
 where to begin, and I won't begin anyway till 
 we're through with this and until you have 
 told me that you are not angry with me. 
 
 "Ogu — what place b'long you?" she went 
 on with her catechism. 
 
 But Ogu was a bushman, lacking knowledge 
 of the almost universal beche-de-mer English, 
 and half a dozen of his fellows wrangled to 
 explain. 
 
 "There are only two or three more," Joan 
 said to Sheldon, "and then we're don,e. But 
 you haven't told me that you are not angry." 
 
 Sheldon looked into her clear eyes as she 
 favored him with a direct, untroubled gaze 
 that threatened, he knew from experience, to 
 
2S3 ADVENTURE 
 
 turn teasingly defiant on an instant's notice. 
 And as he looked at her, it came to him that he 
 had never half anticipated the gladness her 
 return would bring to him. 
 
 "I was dngry," he said deliberately. "I am 
 still angry, very angry — " he noted the glint 
 of defiance in her eyes and thrilled — "but I 
 forgave, and I now forgive all over again. 
 Though I still insist—" 
 
 "That I should have a guardian," she inter- 
 rupted. "But that day will never come. 
 Thank goodness, I'm of legal age and able to 
 transact business in my own right. And speak- 
 ing of business, how do you like my forceful 
 American methods ?" 
 
 "Mr. Raff, from what I hear, doesn't take 
 kindly to them," he temporized, "and you've 
 certainly set the dry bones rattling for many a day. 
 But what I want to know is, if other American 
 women are as successful in business ventures ?" 
 
 "Luck, 'most all luck," she disclaimed 
 modestly, though her eyes lighted with sudden 
 pleasure ; and he knew her boy's vanity had 
 been touched by his trifle of tempered praise. 
 
ADVENTURE 253 
 
 "Luck be blowed !" broke out the long mate, 
 Sparrowhawk, his face shining with admiration. 
 "It was hard work, that's what it was. We 
 earned our pay. She worked us till we dropped. 
 And we were down with fever half the time. So 
 was she, for that matter, only she wouldn't stay 
 down, and she wouldn't let us stay down. My 
 word, she's a slave-driver — 'Just one more 
 heave, Mr. Sparrowhawk, and then you can go 
 to bed for a week,' — she to me, and me stag- 
 gerin' 'round like a dead man, with bilious-green 
 lights flashing inside my head, an' my head just 
 bustin'. I was all in, but I gave that heave 
 right oh — and then it was, 'Another heave now, 
 Mr. Sparrowhawk, just another heave.' An' 
 the Lord lumme, the way she made love to old 
 Kina-Kina!" 
 
 He shook his head reproachfully, while the 
 laughter died down in his throat to long-drawn 
 chuckles. 
 
 "He was older than Telepasse and dirtier," 
 she assured Sheldon, "and I am sure much 
 wickeder. But this isn't work. Let us get 
 through with these lists." 
 
254 ADVENTURE 
 
 She turned to the waiting black on the steps : 
 
 "Ogu, you finish along big marster belong 
 white man, you go Not-Not. — Here you, 
 Tangari, you speak 'm along that fella Ogu. 
 He finish he walk about Not-Not. Have you 
 got that, Mr. Munster ?" 
 
 "But you've broken the recruiting laws," 
 Sheldon said, when the new recruits had marched 
 away to the barracks. " The licenses for the 
 Flibberty and the Emily don't allow for one 
 hundred and fifty. What did Burnett say ?" 
 
 "He passed them, all of them," she answered. 
 "Captain Munster will tell you what he said — 
 something about being blowed, or words to that 
 effect. Now I must run and wash up. Did 
 the Sydney orders arrive .'' " 
 
 "Yours are in your quarters," Sheldon said. 
 "Hurry, for breakfast is waiting. Let me have 
 your hat and belt. Do, please, allow me. 
 There's only one hook for them, and I know 
 where it is." "" - 
 
 She gave him a quick scrutiny that was almost 
 woman-like, then sighed with relief as she 
 unbuckled the heavy belt and passed it to him. 
 
ADVENTURE 255 
 
 "I doubt if I ever want to see another re- 
 volver," she complained. "That one has worn 
 a hole in me, I'm sure. I never dreamed I could 
 get so weary of one." 
 
 Sheldon watched her to the foot of the steps, 
 where she turned and called back : 
 
 "My! I can't tell you how good it is to be 
 home again." , 
 
 And as his gaze continued to follow her across 
 the compound to the tiny grass house, the 
 realization came to him crushingly that Berande 
 and that little grass house was the only place in 
 the world she could call "home." 
 
 "And Burnett said, 'Well, I'll be damned — 
 I beg your pardon. Miss Lackland, but you have 
 wantonly broken the recruiting laws and you 
 know it,'" Captain Munster narrated, as they 
 sat over their whiskey, waiting for Joan to come 
 back. "And says she to him, 'Mr. Burnett, 
 can you show me any law against taking the 
 passengers off a vessel that's on a reef ?' 'That 
 is not the point,' says he. 'It's the very, pre- 
 cise, particular point,' says she; 'and you bear 
 it in mind and go ahead and pass my recruits. 
 
2s6 ADVENTURE 
 
 You can report me to the Lord High Commis- 
 sioner if you want, but I have three vessels here 
 waiting on your convenience, and if you delay 
 them much longer there'll be another report 
 go in to the Lord High Commissioner.' 
 
 "Til hold you responsible, Captain Mun- 
 ster,' says he to me, mad enough to eat scrap- 
 iron. 'No, you won't,' says she; 'I'm the 
 charterer of the Emily, and Captain Munster 
 has acted under my orders.' 
 
 "What could Burnett do ? He passed the 
 whole hundred and fifty, though the Emily was 
 only licensed for forty, and the Flibberty-Gibbet 
 for thirty-five." 
 
 "But I don't understand," Sheldon said. 
 
 "This is the way she worked it. When the 
 Martha was floated, we had to beach her right 
 away at the head of the bay, and whilst repairs 
 were going on, a new rudder being made, sails 
 bent, gear recovered from the niggers, and so 
 forth. Miss Lackland borrows Sparrowhawk to 
 run the Flibberty along with Curtis, lends me 
 Brahms to take Sparrowhawk's place, and starts 
 both craft off recruiting. My word, the niggers 
 
ADVENTURE 257 
 
 came easy. It was virgin ground. Since the 
 Scottish Chiefs, no recruiter had ever even tried 
 to work the coast ; and we'd already put the 
 fear of God into the niggers' hearts till the whole 
 coast was quiet as lambs. When we filled up, 
 we came back to see how the Martha was pro- 
 gressing." 
 
 "And thinking we was going home with our 
 recruits," Sparrowhawk slipped in. "Lord 
 lumme, that Miss Lackland ain't never satisfied. 
 'I'll take 'em on the Martha,'' says she, 'and you 
 can go back and fill up again.' " 
 
 "But I told her it couldn't be done," Munster 
 went on. "I told her the Mcr^Aa hadn't a 
 license for recruiting. 'Oh,' she said, 'it can't 
 be done, eh ? ' and she stood] and thought a few 
 minutes." 
 
 "And I'd seen her think before," cried Spar- 
 rowhawk, " and I knew at wunst that the thing 
 was as good as done." 
 
 Munster lighted his cigarette and resumed. 
 
 '"You see that spit,' she says to me, 'with 
 the little ripple breaking around it ? There's a 
 current sets right across it and on it. And you 
 
2S8 ADVENTURE 
 
 see them bafflin' little cat's-paws ? It's good 
 weather and a falling tide. You just start to 
 beat out, the two of you, and all you have to do 
 is miss stays in the same baffling puff, and the 
 current will set you nicely aground.'" 
 
 "'That little wash of sea won't more than 
 start a sheet or two of copper,' says she, when 
 Munster kicked," Sparrowhawk explained. 
 "Oh, she's no green un, that girl." 
 
 "'Then I'll rescue your recruits and sail 
 away — simple, ain't it.?' says she," Munster 
 continued. "'You hang up one tide,' says she ; 
 'the next is the big high water. Then you 
 hedge off and go after more recruits. There's 
 no law against recruiting when you're empty.' 
 'But there is against starving 'em,' I said; 
 'you know yourself there ain't any kai-kai to 
 speak of aboard of us, and there ain't a crumb 
 on the Martha.''" 
 
 "We'd all been pretty well on native kai-kai, 
 as it was," said Sparrowhawk. 
 
 "'Don't let the kai-kai worry you. Captain 
 Munster,' says she ; ' if I can find grub for eighty- 
 four mouths on the Martha, the two of you can 
 
ADVENTURE 259 
 
 do as much by your two vessels. Now go ahead 
 and get aground before a steady breeze comes up 
 and spoils the manoeuvre. I'll send my boats the 
 moment you strike. And now, good-day, gentle- 
 
 men. 
 
 "And we went and did it," Sparrowhawk said 
 solemnly, and then emitted a series of chuckling 
 noises. "We laid over, starboard tack, and I 
 pinched the Emily against the spit. 'Go about,' 
 Captain Munster yells at me; 'go about, or 
 you'll have me aground !' He yelled other 
 things, much worse. But I didn't mind. I 
 missed stays, pretty as you please, and the 
 Flibberty drifted down on him and fouled him, 
 and we went ashore together in as nice a mess 
 as you ever want to see. Miss Lackland trans- 
 ferred the recruits, and the trick was done." 
 
 "But where was she during the nor'wester ?" 
 Sheldon asked. 
 
 "At Langa-Langa. Ran up there as it was 
 coming on and laid there the whole week and 
 traded for grub with the niggers. When we got 
 to Tulagi, there she was waiting for us and 
 scrapping with Burnett. I tell you, Mr. Shel- 
 
26o ADVENTURE 
 
 don, she's a wonder, that girl, a perfect won- 
 der." 
 
 Munster refilled his glass, and while Sheldon 
 glanced across at Joan's house, anxious for her 
 coming, Sparrowhawk took up the tale. 
 
 "Gritty ! She's the grittiest thing, man or 
 woman, that ever blew into the Solomons. 
 You should have seen Poonga-Poonga the morn- 
 ing we arrived — Sniders popping on the beach 
 and in the mangroves, war-drums booming in 
 the bush, and signal-smokes raising everywhere. 
 'It's all up,' says Captain Munster." 
 
 "Yes, that's what I said," declared that 
 mariner. "Of course, it was all up. You could 
 see it with half an eye and hear it with one ear." 
 
 "'Up your granny,' she says to him," Sparrow- 
 hawk went on. "'Why, we haven't arrived 
 yet, much less got started. Wait till the 
 anchor's down before you get afraid.'" 
 
 "That's what she said to me," Munster pro- 
 claimed. "And, of course, it made me mad so 
 that I didn't care what happened. We tried 
 to send a boat ashore for a pow-wow, but it was 
 fired upon. And every once and a while some 
 
ADVENTURE 261 
 
 nigger'd take a long shot at us out of the man- 
 groves." 
 
 "They was only a quarter of a mile off," 
 Sparrowhawk explained, "and it was damned 
 nasty. 'Don't shoot unless they try to board,' 
 was Miss Lackland's orders ; but the dirty 
 niggers wouldn't board. They just lay off in 
 the bush and plugged away. That night we 
 held a council of war in the Flibberty's cabin. 
 'What we want,' says Miss Lackland, 'is a 
 hostage.'" 
 
 "'That's what they do in books,' I said, think- 
 ing to laugh her away from her folly," Munster 
 interrupted. "'True,' says she, 'and have you 
 never seen the books come true ? ' I shook my 
 head. 'Then you're not too old to learn,' says 
 she. 'I'll tell you one thing right now,' says I, 
 'and that is I'll be blowed if you catch me ashore 
 in the night-time stealing niggers in a place like 
 this.'" 
 
 "You didn't say 'blowed,'" Sparrowhawk 
 corrected. "You'd said you'd be damned." 
 
 "That's what I did, and I meant it, too. " 
 
 "'Nobody asked you to go ashore,' says 
 
262 ADVENTURE 
 
 she, quick as lightning." Sparrowhawk grinned. 
 "And she said more. She said, 'And if I catch 
 you going ashore without orders, there'll be 
 trouble — understand, Captain Munster .'' ' " 
 
 "Who in hell's telling this, you or me ?" the 
 skipper demanded wrathfully. 
 
 "Well, she did, didn't she .?" insisted the mate. 
 
 "Yes, she did, if you want to make so sure of 
 it. And while you're about it, you might as 
 well repeat what she said to you when you said 
 you wouldn't recruit on the Poonga-Poonga 
 coast for twice your screw." 
 
 Sparrowhawk's sun-reddened face flamed red- 
 der, though he tried to pass the situation off 
 by divers laughings and chucklings and face- 
 twistings. 
 
 "Go on, go on," Sheldon urged ; and Munster 
 resumed the narrative. 
 
 "'What we need,' says she, 'is the strong 
 hand. It's the only way to handle them ; and 
 we've got to take hold firm right at the begin- 
 ning. _ I'm going ashore to-night to fetch Kina- 
 Kina himself on board, and I'm not asking who's 
 game to go with me, for I've got every man's 
 
ADVENTURE 263 
 
 work arranged for him. I'm taking my sailors 
 with me, and one white man.' 'Of course, I'm 
 that white man,' I said ; for by that time I was 
 mad enough to go to hell and back again. 'Of 
 course you're not,' says she. 'You'll have 
 charge of the covering boat. Curtis stands by 
 the landing boat. Fowler goes with me. 
 Brahms takes charge of the Flibberty, and 
 Sparrowhawk of the Emily. And we start at 
 one o'clock.' 
 
 "My word, it was a tough job lying there 
 in the covering boat. I never thought doing 
 nothing could be such hard work. We stopped 
 about fifty fathoms off, and watched the other 
 boat go in. It was so dark under the mangroves 
 we couldn't see a thing of it. D'ye know that 
 little, monkey-looking nigger, Sheldon, on the 
 Flibberty — the cook, I mean ? Well, he was 
 cabin-boy twenty years ago on the Scottish 
 Chiefs, and after she was cut off he was a slave 
 there at Poonga-Poonga. And Miss Lackland 
 had discovered the fact. So he was the guide. 
 She gave him half a case of tobacco for that 
 night's work — " 
 
264 ADVENTURE 
 
 "And scared him fit to die before she could 
 get him to come along," observed Sparrow- 
 hawk. 
 
 "Well, I never saw anything so black as the 
 mangroves. I stared at them till my eyes were 
 ready to burst. And then I'd look at the 
 stars, and listen to the surf sighing along the 
 reef. And there was a dog that barked. Re- 
 member that dog, Sparrowhawk ? The brute 
 nearly gave me heart-failure when he first began. 
 After a while he stopped — wasn't barking at the 
 landing party at all ; and then the silence was 
 harder than ever, and the mangroves grew 
 blacker, and it was all I could do to keep from 
 calling out to Curtis in there in the landing boat, 
 just to make sure that I wasn't the only white 
 man left alive. 
 
 "Of course there was a row. It had to come, 
 and I knew it; but it startled -me just the 
 same, I never heard such screeching and yell- 
 ing in my life. The niggers must have just 
 dived for the bush without looking to see what 
 was up, while her Tahitians let loose, shooting in 
 the air and yelling to hurry 'em on. And then, 
 
ADVENTURE 265 
 
 just as sudden, came the silence again — all 
 except for some small kiddie that had got 
 dropped in the stampede and that kept crying 
 in the bush for its mother. 
 
 "And then I heard them coming through the 
 mangroves, and an oar strike on a gunwale, 
 and Miss Lackland laugh, and I knew everything 
 was all right. We pulled on board without a 
 shot being fired. And, by God ! she had made 
 the books come true, for there was old Kina- 
 Kina himself, being hoisted over the rail, shiver- 
 ing and chattering like an ape. The rest was 
 easy. Kina-Kina's word was law, and he was 
 scared to death. And we kept him on board 
 issuing proclamations all the time we were in 
 Poonga-Poonga. 
 
 "It was a good move, too, in other ways. 
 She made Kina-Kina order his people to return 
 all the gear they'd stripped from the Martha. 
 And back it came, day after day, steering com- 
 passes, blocks and tackles, sails, coils of rope, 
 medicine chests, ensigns, signal flags — every- 
 thing, in fact, except the trade goods and 
 supplies which had already been kai-kai'd. Of 
 
266 ADVENTURE 
 
 course, she gave them a few sticks of tobacco 
 to keep them in good humor." 
 
 "Sure she did," Sparrowhawk broke forth. 
 "She gave the beggars five fathoms of calico for 
 the big mainsail, two sticks of tobacco for the 
 chronometer, and a sheath-knife worth eleven 
 pence ha'penny for a hundred fathoms of brand- 
 newfive-inchmanila.* She got old Kina-Kina with 
 that strong hand on the go-off, and she kept him 
 going all the time. She — here she comes now." 
 
 It was with a shock of surprise that Sheldon 
 greeted her appearance. All the time, while the 
 tale of happening at Poonga-Poonga had been 
 going on, he had pictured her as the woman he 
 had always known, clad roughly, skirt made out 
 of window-curtain stuff, an undersized man's 
 shirt for a blouse, straw sandals for foot cover- 
 ing, with the Stetson hat and the eternal revol- 
 ver completing her costume. The ready-made 
 clothes from Sydney had transformed her. A 
 simple skirt and shirt-waist of some sort of 
 wash-goods set off her trim figure with a hint of 
 elegant womanhood that was new to him. 
 Brown slippers peeped out as she crossed the 
 
ADVENTURE 267 
 
 compound, and he once caught a glimpse to the 
 ankle of brown open-work stockings. Some- 
 how, she had been made many times the woman 
 by these mere extraneous trappings ; and in his 
 mind these wild Arabian Nights adventures of 
 hers seemed thrice as wonderful. 
 
 As they went in to breakfast, he became aware 
 that Munster and Sparrowhawk had received a 
 similar shock. All their air of camaraderie was 
 dissipated, and they had become abruptly 
 and immensely respectful. 
 
 "I've opened up a new field," she said, as she 
 began pouring the coffee. "Old Kina-Kina will 
 never forget me, I'm sure, and I can recruitthere 
 whenever I want. I saw Morgan at Guvutu. 
 He's willing to contract for a thousand boys at 
 forty shillings per head. Did I tell you that I'd 
 taken out a recruiting license for the Martha? 
 I did, and the Martha can sign eighty boys 
 every trip." 
 
 Sheldon smiled a trifle bitterly to himself. 
 The wonderful woman who had tripped across 
 the compound in her Sydney clothes was gone, 
 and he was listening to the boy come back again. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE LOST TOY 
 
 "\'\ TELL," Joan said with a sigh, "I've 
 ^^ shown you hustling American methods 
 that succeed and get somewhere, and 
 here you are beginning your muddling again." 
 Five days had passed, and she and Sheldon 
 were standing on the veranda watching the 
 Martha, close-hauled on the wind, laying a tack 
 off shore. During those five days Joan had never 
 once broached the 'desire of her heart, though 
 Sheldon, in this particular instance reading her 
 like a book, had watched her lead up to the 
 question a score of times in the hope that he 
 would himself suggest her taking charge of the 
 Martha. She had wanted him to say the word, 
 and she had steeled herself not to say it herself. 
 The matter of finding a skipper had been a hard 
 one. She was jealous of the Martha, and no sug- 
 gested man had satisfied her. 
 
 268 
 
ADVENTURE 269 
 
 "Oleson ?" she had demanded. "He does 
 very well on the Flibberty, with me and my 
 men to overhaul her whenever she's ready to fall 
 to pieces through his slackness. But skipper of 
 the Martha? Impossible ! 
 
 "Munster ? Yes, he's the only man I know 
 in the Solomons I'd care to see in charge. And 
 yet, there's his record. He lost the Umbawa — 
 one hundred and forty drowned. He was first 
 officer on the bridge. Deliberate disobedience 
 to instructions. No wonder they broke him. 
 
 "Christian Young has never had any experi- 
 ence with large boats. Besides, we can't afford 
 to pay him what he's clearing on the Minerva. 
 Sparrowhawk is a good man — to take orders. 
 He has no initiative. He's an able sailor, but 
 he can't command. I tell you I was nervous all 
 the time he had charge of the Flibberty at Poonga- 
 Poonga when I had to stay by the Marsha." 
 
 And so it had gone. No name proposed was 
 satisfactory, and, moreover, Sheldon had been 
 surprised by the accuracy of her judgments. A 
 dozen times she almost drove him to the stiate- 
 ment that from the showing she made of Solo- 
 
270 ADVENTURE 
 
 mon Islands sailors, she was the only person 
 fitted to command the Martha. But each time 
 he restrained himself, while her pride prevented 
 her from making the suggestion. 
 
 "Good whale-boat sailors do not necessarily 
 make good schooner-handlers," she replied to 
 one of his arguments. "Besides, the captain of 
 a boat like the Martha must have a large mind, 
 see things in a large way ; he must have capacity 
 and enterprise." * 
 
 "But with your Tahitians on board — " Shel- 
 don had begun another argument. 
 
 "There won't be any Tahitians on board," 
 she had returned promptly. "My men stay 
 with me. I never know when I may need them. 
 When I sail, they sail; when I remain ashore, 
 they remain ashore. I'll find plenty for them 
 to do right here on the plantation. You've 
 seen them' clearing bush; each of them worth 
 half a dozen of your cannibals." 
 
 So it was that Joan stood beside Sheldon and 
 sighed as she watched the Martha beating out 
 to sea, old Kinross, brought over from Savo, in 
 command. 
 
ADVENTURE 271 
 
 "Kinross is an old fossil," she said, with a 
 touch of bitterness in her voice. "Oh, he'll 
 never wreck her through rashness, rest assured of 
 that; but he's timid to childishness, and timid 
 skippers lose just as many vessels as rash ones. 
 Some day, Kinross will lose the Martha because 
 there'll be only one chance and he'll be afraid 
 to take it. I know his sort. Afraid to take 
 advantage of a proper breeze of wind that will 
 fetch him in in twenty hours, he'll get caught out 
 in the calm that follows and spend a whole week 
 in getting in. The Martha will make money 
 with him, there's no doubt of it ; but she won't 
 make near the money that she would under a 
 competent master." 
 
 She paused, and with heightened color and 
 sparkling eyes gazed seaward at the schooner. 
 
 "My ! but she is a witch ! Look at her eating 
 up the water, and there's no wind to speak of. 
 She's not got ordinary white metal, either. It's 
 man-of-war copper, every inch of it. I had them 
 polish it with cocoanut husks when she was 
 careened at Poonga-Poonga. She was a seal- 
 hunter before this gold expedition got her. 
 
272 ADVENTURE 
 
 And seal-hunters had to sail. They've run away 
 from second-class Russian cruisers more than 
 once up there off Siberia. 
 
 "Honestly, if I'd dreamed of the chance wait- 
 ing for me at Guvutu when I bought her for less 
 than three hundred dollars, I'd never have gone 
 partners with you. And in that case I'd be 
 sailing her right now." 
 
 The justice of her contention came abruptly 
 home to Sheldon. What she had done she 
 would have done just the same if she had not 
 been his partner. And in the saving of the 
 Martha he had played no part. Single-handed, 
 unadvised, in the teeth of the laughter of Guvutu 
 and of the competition of men like Morgan and 
 Raff, she had gone into the adventure and 
 brought it through to success. 
 
 "You make me feel like a big man who has 
 robbed a small child of a lolly," he said, with 
 sudden contrition. 
 
 "And the small child is crying for it." 
 
 She looked at him, and he noted that her lip 
 was slightly trembling and that her eyes were 
 moist. It was the boy all over, he thought; 
 
ADVENTURE 273 
 
 the boy crying for the wee bit boat with which to 
 play. And yet it was a woman, too. What a 
 maze of contradiction she was ! And he won- 
 dered, had she been all woman and no boy, if he 
 would have loved her in just the same way. 
 Then it rushed in upon his consciousness that he 
 really loved her for what she was, for all the boy 
 in her and all the rest of her — for the total of 
 her that would have been a different total in 
 direct proportion to any differing of the parts of 
 her. 
 
 "But the small child won't cry any more for 
 it," she was saying. "This is the last sob. 
 Some day, if Kinross doesn't lose her, you'll turn 
 her over to your partner, I know. And I won't 
 nag you any more. Only I do hope you know 
 how I feel. It isn't as if I'd merely bought the 
 Martha, or merely built her. I saved her. I 
 took her off the reef. I saved her from the grave 
 of the sea when fifty-five pounds was considered 
 a big risk. She is mine, peculiarly mine. With- 
 out me she wouldn't exist. That big nor'wester 
 would have finished her the first three hours it 
 blew. , And then I've sailed her, too ; and she is 
 
274 ADVENTURE 
 
 a witch, a perfect witch. Why, do you know, 
 she'll steer by the wind with half a spoke, give 
 and take. And going about ! Well, you don't 
 have to baby her, starting head-sheets, flattening 
 mainsail, and gentling her with the wheel. Put 
 your wheel down, and around she comes, like a colt 
 with the bit in its teeth. And you can back her 
 like a steamer. I did it at Langa-Langa, be- 
 tween that shoal patch and the shore-reef. It 
 was wonderful. 
 
 "But you don't love boats like: I do, and I 
 know you think I'm making a fool of myself. 
 But some day I'm going to sail the Martha again. 
 I know it. I know it." 
 
 In reply, and quite without premeditation, his 
 hand went out to hers, covering it as it lay on the 
 railing. But he knew, beyond the shadow of a 
 doubt, that it was the boy that returned the 
 pressure he gave, the boy sorrowing over the 
 lost toy. The thought chilled him. Never had 
 he been actually nearer to her, and never had she 
 been more convincingly remote. She was cer- 
 tainly not acutely aware that his hand was touch- 
 ing hers. In her grief at the departure of the 
 
ADVENTURE 275 
 
 Martha it was, to her, anybody's hand — at 
 the best, a friend's hand. 
 
 He withdrew his hand and walked perturbedly 
 away. 
 
 "Why hasn't he got that big fisherman's stay- 
 sail on her.?" she demanded irritably. "It 
 would make the old girl just walk along in this 
 breeze. I know the sort old Kinross is. He's 
 the skipper that lies three days under double- 
 reefed topsails waiting for a gale that doesn't 
 come. Safe ?, Oh, yes, he's safe — dangerously 
 safe." 
 
 Sheldon retraced his steps. 
 
 "Never mind," he said. "You can go sailing 
 on the Martha any time you please — recruiting 
 on Malaita if you want to." 
 
 It was a great concession he was making, and 
 he felt that he did it against his better judgment. 
 Her reception of it was a surprise to him. 
 
 "With old Kinross in command ?" she queried. 
 "No, thank you. He'd drive me to suicide. 
 I couldn't stand his handling of her. It would 
 give me nervous prostration. I'll never step on 
 the Martha again, unless it is to take charge of 
 
276 ADVENTURE 
 
 her. I'm a sailor, like my father, and he could 
 never bear to see a vessel mishandled. Did 
 you see the way Kinross got under way ? It 
 was disgraceful. And the noise he made about 
 it ! Old Noah did better with the Ark." 
 
 "But we manage to get somewhere just the 
 same," he smiled. 
 
 "So did Noah." 
 
 "That was the main thing." 
 
 "For an antediluvian." 
 
 She took another lingering look at the Martha, 
 then turned to Sheldon. 
 
 "You are a slovenly lot down here when it 
 comes to boats — most of you are, anyway. 
 Christian Young is all right though, Munster 
 has a slap-dash style about him, and they do 
 say old Nielsen was a crackerjack. But with the 
 rest I've seen, there's no dash, no go, no clever- 
 ness, no real sailor's pride. It's all humdrum, 
 and podgy, and slow-going, any going so long 
 as you get there heaven knows when. But some 
 day I'll show you how the Martha should be 
 handled. I'll break out anchor and get under 
 way in a speed and style that will make your 
 
ADVENTURE 277 
 
 head hum ; and I'll bring her alongside the wharf 
 at Guvutu without dropping anchor and running 
 a line." 
 
 She came to a breathless pause, and then 
 broke into laughter directed, he could see, 
 against herself. 
 
 "Old Kinross is setting that fisherman's 
 staysail," he remarked quietly. 
 
 "No !" she cried, incredulously, swiftly look- 
 ing, then running for the telescope. 
 
 She regarded the nianoeuvre steadily through 
 the glass, and Sheldon, watching her face, could 
 see that the skipper was not making a success 
 of it. 
 
 She finally lowered the glass with a groan. 
 
 "He's made a mess of it," she said, "and now 
 he's trying it over again. And a man like that 
 is put in charge of a fairy like the Martha. 
 Well, it's a good argument against marriage, 
 that's all. No, I won't look any more. Come 
 on in and play a steady, conservative game of 
 billiards with me. And after that I'm going to 
 saddle up and go after pigeons. Will you come 
 along?" 
 
278 ADVENTURE 
 
 An hour later, just as they were riding out of 
 the compound, Joan turned in the saddle for a 
 last look at the Martha, a distant speck well over 
 toward the Florida coast. 
 
 "Won't Tudor be surprised when he finds we 
 awn t\ie Martha?" she laughed "Think of it! 
 If he doesn't strike pay-dirt he'll have to buy a 
 steamer passage to get away from the Solomons." 
 
 Still laughing gayly, she rode through the 
 gate. But suddenly her laughter broke flatly 
 and she reined in the mare. Sheldon glanced at 
 her sharply, and noted her face mottling, even 
 as he looked, and turning orange and green. 
 
 "It's the fever," she said. "I'll have to turn 
 back." 
 
 By the time they were in the compound she was 
 shivering and shaking, and he had to help her 
 from her horse. 
 
 "Funny, isn't it?" she said with chattering 
 teeth. "Like seasickness — not serious, but 
 horribly miserable while it lasts. I'm going to 
 bed. Send Noa Noah and Viaburi to me. 
 Tell Ornfiri to make hot water. I'll be out of my 
 head in fifteen minutes. But I'll be all right by 
 
ADVENTURE 279 
 
 evening. Short and sharp is the way it takes me. 
 Too bad to lose the shooting. Thank you, I'm 
 all right." 
 
 Sheldon obeyed her instructions, rushed hot- 
 water bottles along to her, and then sat on the 
 veranda, vainly trying to interest himself in a 
 two-months' old file of Sydney newspapers. He 
 kept glancing up and across the compound to the 
 grass house. Yes, he decided, the contention 
 of every white man in the islands was right; 
 the Solomons was no place for a woman. 
 
 He clapped his hands, and Lalaperu came run- 
 ning. 
 
 "Here, you !" he ordered ; "go along barracks ; 
 bring 'm black fella Mary, plenty too much, 
 altogether." 
 
 A few minutes later the dozen black women 
 of Berande were ranged before him. He looked 
 them over critically, finally selecting one that 
 was young, comely as such creatures went, and 
 whose body bore no signs of skin disease. 
 
 "What name, you !" he demanded. "San- 
 gui?" 
 
 "Me Mahua," was the answer. 
 
28o ADVENTURE 
 
 "All right, you fella Mahua. You finish cook 
 along boys. You stop along white Mary, 
 All the time you stop along. You savvee ?" 
 
 "Me savvee," she grunted, and obeyed "his 
 gesture to go to the grass house immediately. 
 
 "What name ?" he asked Viaburi, who had 
 just come out of the grass house. 
 
 "Big fella sick," was the answer. "White 
 fella Mary talk 'm too much allee time. AUee 
 time talk 'm big fella schooner." 
 
 Sheldon nodded. He understood. It was 
 the loss of the Martha that had brought on the 
 fever. The fever would have come sooner or 
 lat^r, he knew ; but her disappointment had pre- 
 cipitated it. He lighted a cigarette, and in the 
 curling smoke of it caught visions of his English 
 mother, and wondered if she would understand 
 how her son could love a woman who cried because 
 she could not be skipper of a schooner in the 
 cannibal isles. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 A MAN-TALK 
 
 THE most patient man in the world is 
 prone to impatience in love; and Shel- 
 don was in love. He called himself an 
 ass a score of times a day, and strove to contain 
 himself by directing his mind in other channels ; 
 but more than a score of times each day his 
 thoughts roved back and dwelt on Joan. It 
 was a pretty problem she presented, and he was 
 continually debating with himself as to what was 
 the best way to approach her. 
 
 He was not an adept at love-making. He had 
 had but one experience in the gentle art, in 
 which he had been more wooed than wooing; 
 and the affair had profited him little. This was 
 another affair, and he assured himself continually 
 that it was a uniquely different and difficult 
 affair. Not only was here a woman who was not 
 bent on finding a husband, but it was a woman 
 
 281 
 
282 ADVENTURE 
 
 who wasn't a woman at all ; who was genuinely- 
 appalled by the thought of a husband ; who 
 joyed in boys' games and sentimentalized over 
 such things as adventure ; who was healthy, and 
 normal, and wholesome, and who was so imma- 
 ture that a husband stood for nothing more than 
 an encumbrance in her cherished scheme of ex- 
 istence. 
 
 But how to approach her ? He divined the 
 fanatical love of freedom in her, the deep- 
 seated antipathy for restraint of any sort. No 
 man could ever put his arm around her and win 
 her. She would flutter, away like a frightened 
 bird. Approach by contact — that, he realized, 
 was the one thing he must never do. His hand- 
 clasp must be what it had always been, the hand- 
 clasp of hearty friendship and nothing more. 
 Never, by action, must he advertise his feeling 
 for her. Remained speech. But what speech ? 
 Appeal to her love .'' But she did not love him. 
 Appeal to her brain .'' But it was apparently 
 a boy's brain. All the deliciousness and fineness 
 of a finely bred woman was hers, but, for all he 
 could discern, her mental processes were sexless 
 
ADVENTURE 283 
 
 and boyish. And yet speech it must be, for a 
 beginning had to be made, somewhere, some 
 time. Her mind must be made accustomed to 
 the idea, her thoughts turned upon the matter of 
 marriage. 
 
 And so he rode overseeing about the plantation 
 with tightly drawn and puckered brows, puz- 
 zling over the problem and steeling himself to the 
 first attempt. A dozen ways he planned an in- 
 tricate loading-up to the first breaking of the ice, 
 and each time some link in the chain snapped and 
 the talk went off on unexpected and irrelevant 
 lines. And then, one morning, quite fortuitously, 
 the opportunity came. 
 
 "My dearest wish is the success of Berande," 
 Joan had just said, apropos of a discussion about 
 the cheapening of freights on copra to market. 
 
 "Do you mind if I tell you the dearest wish of 
 my heart ? " he promptly returned. " I long for 
 it. I dream about it. It is my dearest desire." 
 
 He paused and looked at her with intent sig- 
 nificance ; but it was plain to him that she 
 thought there was nothing more at issue than 
 mutual confidences about things in general. 
 
284 ADVENTURE 
 
 "Yes, go ahead," she said, a trifle impatient 
 at his delay. 
 
 "I love to think of the success of Berande," 
 he said. " But that is secondary. It is subordi- 
 nate to the dearest wish, which is that some day 
 you will share Berande with me in a completer 
 way than that of mere business partnership. 
 It is for you, some day, when you are ready, to be 
 my wife." 
 
 She started back from him as if she had been 
 stung. Her face went white on the instant, 
 not from maidenly embarrassment, but from the 
 anger which he could see flaming in her eyes. 
 
 "This taking for granted ! — this when I am 
 ready!" she cried passionately. Then her 
 voice swiftly became cold and steady, and she 
 talked in the way he imagined she must have 
 talked business with Morgan and Raff at Guvutu. 
 "Listen to me, Mr. Sheldon. I like you very 
 well, though you are slow and a muddler ; but 
 I want you to understand, once and for all, that I 
 did not come to the Solomons to get married. 
 That is an affliction I could have accumulated 
 at home, without sailing ten thousand miles after 
 
ADVENTURE 285 
 
 it. I have my own way to make in the world, and 
 I came to the Solomons to do it. Getting mar- 
 ried is not making my way in the world. It 
 may do for some women, but not for me, thank 
 you. When I sit down to talk over the freight on 
 copra, I don't care to have proposals of marriage 
 sandwiched in. Besides — besides — " 
 
 Her voice broke for the moment, and when she 
 went on, there was a note of appeal in it that 
 wellnigh convicted him to himself of being a brute. 
 
 "Don't you see? — it spoils everything. It 
 makes the whole situation impossible — and 
 — and I so loved our partnership and was 
 proud of it. Don't you see ? — I can't go on 
 being your partner if you make love to me. And 
 I was so happy." 
 
 Tears of disappointment were in her eyes, and 
 she caught a swift sob in her throat. 
 
 "I warned you," he said gravely. "Such un- 
 usual situations between men and women cannot 
 endure. I told you so at the beginning." 
 
 "Oh, yes; it is quite clear to me what you 
 did." She was angry again, and the feminine 
 appeal had disappeared. "You were very dis- 
 
286 ADVENTURE 
 
 creet in your warning. You took good care to 
 warn me against every other man in the Solo- 
 mons except yourself." 
 
 It was a blow in the face to Sheldon. He 
 smarted with the truth of it, and at the same time 
 he smarted with what he was convinced was the 
 injustice of it. A gleam of triumph that flickered 
 in her eye because of the hit she had made, de- 
 cided him. 
 
 " It is not so one-sided as you seem to think it 
 is," he began. "I was doing very nicely on 
 Berande before you came. At least, I was not 
 suffering indignities such as being accused of 
 cowardly conduct, as you have just accused me. 
 Remember, please remember, I did not invite 
 you to Berande. Nor did I invite you to stay on 
 at Berande. It was by staying that you brought 
 about this — to you — unpleasant situation. By 
 staying you made yourself a temptation, and now 
 you would blame me for it. I did not want you 
 to stay. I wasn't in love with you then. I 
 wanted you to go to Sydney, to go back to Hawaii. 
 But you insisted on staying. You virtually — " 
 
 He paused for a softer word than the one tha,t 
 
ADVENTURE 287 
 
 had risen to his lips, and she took it away from 
 him. 
 
 "Forced myself on you — that's what you 
 meant to say," she cried, the flags of battle paint- 
 ing her cheeks. "Go ahead. Don't mind my 
 feelings." 
 
 "All right, I won't," he said decisively, realiz- 
 ing that the discussion was in danger of becom- 
 ing a vituperative, schoolboy argument. "You 
 have insisted on being considered as a man. 
 Consistency would demand that you talk like a 
 man, and like a man listen to man-talk. And lis- 
 ten you shall. It is not your fault that this un- 
 pleasantness has arisen. I do not blame you for 
 anything — remember that ; and for the same 
 reason you should not blame me for anything." 
 
 He noticed her bosom heaving, as she sat with 
 clenched hands, and it was all he could do to 
 conquer the desire to flash his arms out and 
 around her instead of going on with his coolly 
 planned campaign. As it was, he nearly told 
 her that she was a most adorable boy. But he 
 checked all such wayward fancies, and held him- 
 self rigidly down to his disquisition. 
 
288 ADVENTURE 
 
 "You can't help being yourself. You can't 
 help being a very desirable creature so far as I 
 am concerned. You have made me want you. 
 You didn't intend to, you didn't try to. You 
 were so made, that is all. And I was so made 
 that I was ripe to want you. But I can't help 
 being myself. I can't, by an effort of will, cease 
 from wanting you, any more than you, by an 
 effort of will, can make yourself undesirable to 
 me. 
 
 "Oh, this desire ! this want ! want ! want !" 
 she broke in rebelliously. "I am not quite a 
 fool. I understand some things. And the whole 
 thing is so foolish and absurd — and uncomfort- 
 able. I wish I could get away from it. I 
 really think it would be a good idea for me to 
 marry Noa Noah or Adamu Adam, or Lala- 
 peru there, or any black boy. Then I could give 
 him orders, and keep him penned away from me, 
 and men like you would leave me alone and not 
 talk marriage and 'I want, I want.'" 
 
 Sheldon laughed in spite of himself, and far 
 from any genuine impulse to laugh. 
 
 "You are positively soulless," he said savagely. 
 
ADVENTURE 289 
 
 "Because I've a soul that doesn't yearn for a 
 man for master?" she took up the gauge. 
 "Very well, then, I am soulless, and what are 
 you going to do about it ?" 
 
 "I am going to ask you why you look like a 
 woman ? Why you have the form of a woman ? 
 the lips of a woman ? the wonderful hair of a 
 woman ? And I am going to answer : because 
 you are a woman, though the woman in you is 
 asleep, and that some day the woman will wake 
 up." 
 
 "Heaven forbid!" she cried, in such sudden 
 and genuine dismay as to make him laugh and 
 to bring a smile to her own lips against herself. 
 
 "I've got some more to say to you," Sheldon 
 pursued. "I did try to protect you from every 
 other man in the Solomons, and from yourself, 
 as well. As for me, I didn't dream that danger 
 lay in that quarter. So I failed to protect you 
 from myself. I failed to protect you at all. 
 You went your own wilful way, just as though 
 I didn't exist — wrecking schooners, recruiting 
 on Malaita, and sailing schooners, one lone, 
 unprotected girl in the company of some of the 
 
290 ADVENTURE 
 
 worst scoundrels in the Solomons. Fowler ! 
 and Brahms ! and Curtis ! And such is the 
 perverseness of human nature — I am frank, 
 you see — I love you for that, too. I love you 
 for all of you, just as you are." 
 
 She made a moue of distaste and raised a hand 
 protestingly, 
 
 "Don't," he said. "You have no right to 
 recoil from the mention of my love for you. 
 Remember, this is a man-talk. From, the point 
 of view of the talk, you are a man. The woman 
 in you is only incidental, accidental, and irrele- 
 vant. You've got to listen to the bald state- 
 ment of fact, strange though it is, that I love 
 you. 
 
 "And now I won't bother you any more about 
 love. We'll go on the same as before. You 
 are better off and safer on Berande, in spite of 
 the fact that I love you, than anywhere else in 
 the Solomons. But I want you, as a final item 
 of man-talk, to remember, from time to time, 
 that I love you, and that it will be the dearest 
 day of my life when you consent to marry me. 
 I want you to think of it sometimes. You can't 
 
ADVENTURE 291 
 
 help but think of it sometimes. And now we 
 won't talk about it any more. As between men, 
 there's my hand." 
 
 He held out his hand. She hesitated, then 
 gripped it heartily and smiled through her tears. 
 
 "I wish — " she faltered, "I wish, instead of 
 that black Mary, you'd given me somebody to 
 swear for me." 
 
 And with this enigmatic utterance she turned 
 away. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 CONTRABAND 
 
 SHELDON did not mention the subject 
 again, nor did his conduct change from 
 what it had always been. There was 
 nothing of the pining lover, nor of the lover at 
 all, in his demeanor. Nor was there any awk- 
 wardness between them. They were as frank 
 and friendly in their relations as ever. He had 
 wondered if his belligerent love declaration might 
 have aroused some womanly self-consciousness 
 in Joan, but he looked in vain for any sign of it. 
 She appeared as unchanged as he, and while he 
 knew that he hid his real feelings, he was firm in 
 his belief that she hid nothing. And yet the 
 germ that he had implanted must be at work ; 
 he was confident of that, though he was without 
 confidence as to the result. There was no fore- 
 casting this strange girl's processes. She might 
 awaken, it was true; and on the other hand, 
 
 292 
 
ADVENTURE 293 
 
 and with equal chance, he might be the wrong 
 man for her, and his declaration of love might 
 only more firmly set her in her views on single 
 blessedness. 
 
 , While he devoted more and more of his time 
 to the plantation itself, she took over the house 
 and its multitudinous affairs, and she took hold 
 firmly, in sailor fashion, revolutionizing the 
 system and discipline. The labor situation on 
 Berande was improving. The Martha had car- 
 ried away fifty of the blacks whose time was up, 
 and they had been among the worst on the 
 plantation — five-year men recruited by Billy- 
 Be-Blowed, men who had gone through the old 
 days of terrorism when the original owners of 
 Berande had been driven away. The new re- 
 cruits, being broken in under the new regime, 
 gave better promise. Joan had joined with 
 Sheldon from the start in the program that they 
 must be gripped with the strong hand and at the 
 same time be treated with absolute justice, if 
 they were to escape being contaminated by the 
 older boys that still remained. 
 
 " I think it would be a good idea to put all the 
 
294 ADVENTURE 
 
 gangs at work close to the house this afternoon," 
 she announced one day at breakfast. "I've 
 cleaned up the house, and you ought to clean up 
 the barracks. There is too much stealing going 
 
 on. 
 
 "A good idea," Sheldon agreed. "Their 
 boxes should be searched. I've just missed a 
 couple of shirts, and my best tooth-brush is 
 gone." 
 
 "And two boxes of my cartridges," she added, 
 "to say nothing of handkerchiefs, towels, 
 sheets, and my best pair of slippers. But what 
 they want with your tooth-brush is more than I 
 can imagine. They'll be stealing the billiard- 
 balls next." 
 
 "One did disappear a few weeks before you 
 came," Sheldon laughed. "We'll search the 
 boxes this afternoon." 
 
 And a busy afternoon it was. Joan and 
 Sheldon, both armed, went through the barracks, 
 house by house, the boss-boys assisting, and 
 half a dozen messengers, in relay, shouting along 
 the line the names of the boys wanted. Each 
 boy brought the key to his particular box, and 
 
ADVENTURE 295 
 
 was permitted to look on while the contents 
 were overhauled by the boss-boys. 
 
 A wealth of loot was recovered. There were 
 fully a dozen cane-knives — big hacking 
 weapons, with razor edges, capable of decapi- 
 tating a man at a stroke. Towels, sheets, shirts, 
 and slippers, along with tooth-brushes, wisp- 
 brooms, soap, the missing billiard-ball, and all 
 the lost and forgotten trifles of many months, 
 came to light. But most astonishing was the 
 quantity of ammunition — cartridges for Lee- 
 Metfords, for Winchesters and Marlins, for 
 revolvers from thirty-two calibre to forty-five, 
 shot-gun cartridges, Joan's two boxes of thirty- 
 eight, cartridges of prodigious bore for the 
 ancient Sniders of Malaita, flasks of black 
 powder, sticks of dynamite, yards of fuse, and 
 boxes of detonators. But the great find was in 
 the house occupied by Gogoomy and five Port 
 Adams recruits. The fact that the boxes yielded 
 nothing e-xcited Sheldon's suspicions, and he 
 gave orders to dig up the earthern floor. 
 Wrapped in matting, well-oiled, free from rust, 
 and brand new, two Winchesters were first un- 
 
296 ADVENTURE 
 
 earthed. Sheldon did not recognize them. 
 They had not come from Berande ; neither had 
 the forty flasks of black powder found under the 
 corner post of the house; and, while he could 
 not be sure, he could remember no loss of eight 
 boxes of detonators. A big Colt's revolver he 
 recognized as Hughie Drummond's, while Joan 
 identified a thirty-two Iver & Johnson as a loss 
 reported by Matapuu the first week he landed at 
 Berande. The absence of any cartridges made 
 Sheldon persist in the digging up of the floor, 
 and a fifty-pound flour-tin was his reward. 
 With glowering eyes Gogoomy looked on while 
 Sheldon took from the tin a hundred rounds 
 each for the two Winchesters and fully as many 
 rounds more of nondescript cartridges of all 
 sorts and makes and calibres. 
 
 The contraband and stolen property was piled 
 in assorted heaps on the back veranda of the 
 bungalow. A few paces from the bottom of the 
 steps were grouped the forty-odd culprits, with 
 behind them, in solid array, the several hundred 
 blacks of the plantation. At the head of the 
 steps Joan and Sheldon were seated, while on 
 
ADVENTURE 297 
 
 the steps stood the gang-bosses. One by one 
 the culprits were called up and examined. 
 Nothing definite could be extracted from them. 
 They lied transparently, but persistently, and 
 when caught in one lie explained it away with 
 half a dozen others. One boy complacently 
 announced that he had found eleven sticks of 
 dynamite on the beach. Matapuu's revolver, 
 found in the box of one Kapu, was explained 
 away by that boy as having been given to him 
 by Lervumie. Lervumie, called forth to testify, 
 said he had got it from Noni ; Noni had got it 
 from Sulefatoi; Sulefatoi from Choka; Choka 
 from Ngava ; and Ngava completed the circle by 
 stating that it had been given him by Kapu. 
 Kapu, thus doubly damned, calmly gave full de- 
 tails of how it had been given to him by Ler- 
 vumie; and Lervumie, with equal wealth of 
 detail, told how he had received it from Noni ; 
 and from Noni to Sulefatoi it went on around 
 the circle again. 
 
 Divers articles were traced indubitably to the 
 house-boys, each of whom steadfastly proclaimed 
 his own innocence and cast doubts on his fellows. 
 
298 ADVENTURE 
 
 The boy with the billiard-ball said that he had 
 never seen it in his life before, and hazarded the 
 suggestion that it had got into his box through 
 some mysterious and occultly evil agency. So 
 far as he was concerned it might have dropped 
 down from heaven for all he knew how it got 
 there. To the cooks and boat's crews of every 
 vessel that had dropped anchor off Berande in 
 the past several years were ascribed the arrival 
 of scores of the stolen articles and of the major 
 portion of the ammunition. There was no trac- 
 ing the truth in any of it, though it was without 
 doubt that the unidentified weapons and un- 
 familiar cartridges had come ashore off of visiting 
 craft. 
 
 "Look at it," Sheldon said to Joan. "We've 
 been sleeping over a volcano. They ought to be 
 whipped — " 
 
 "No whip me," Gogoomy cried out frpm be- 
 low. "Father belong me big fella chief. Me 
 whipj too much trouble along you, close up, my 
 word." 
 
 "What name you fella Gogoomy!" Sheldon 
 shouted. "I knock seven bells out of you. 
 
ADVENTURE 299 
 
 Here, you Kwaque, put 'm irons along that fella 
 Gogoomy." 
 
 Kwaque, a strapping gang-boss, plucked Go- 
 goomy from out of his following, and, helped by 
 the other gang-bosses, twisted his arms behind 
 him and snapped on the heavy handcuffs. 
 
 "Me finish along you, close up, you die alto- 
 gether," Gogoomy, with wrath-distorted face, 
 threatened the boss-boy. 
 
 "Please, no whipping," Joan said in a low 
 voice. "If whipping is necessary, send them 
 to Tulagi and let the government do it. Give 
 them their choice between a fine or an official 
 whipping." 
 
 Sheldon nodded and stood up, facing the 
 blacks. 
 
 "Manonmie !" he called. 
 
 Manonmie stood forth and waited. 
 
 "You fella boy bad fella too much," Sheldon 
 charged. "You steal 'm plenty. You steal 
 'm one fella towel, one fella cane-knife, two-ten 
 fella cartridge. My word, plenty bad fella 
 steal 'm you. Me cross along you too much. 
 S'pose, you like 'm, me take 'm one fella pound 
 
300 ADVENTURE 
 
 along you in big book. S'pose you no like 'm, me 
 take 'm one fella pound, then me send you fella 
 along Tulagi catch 'm one strong fella govern- 
 ment whipping. Plenty New Georgia boys, 
 plenty Ysabel boys stop along jail along Tulagi. 
 Them fella no like Malaita boys little bit. My 
 word, they give 'm you strong fella whipping. 
 What you say ? " 
 
 "You take 'm one fella pound along me," was 
 the answer. 
 
 And Manonmie, patently relieved, stepped 
 back, while'Sheldon entered the fine in the plan- 
 tation labor journal. 
 
 Boy after boy, he called the offenders out and 
 gave them their choice, and boy by boy each one 
 elected to pay the fine imposed. Some fines 
 were as low as several shillings, while in the 
 more serious cases, such as thefts of guns and 
 ammunition, the fines were correspondingly 
 heavy. 
 
 Gogoomy and his five tribesmen were fined 
 three pounds each, and, at Gogoomy's guttural 
 command, they refused to pay. 
 
 "S'pose you go along Tulagi," Sheldon warned 
 
ADVENTURE 301 
 
 him; "you catch 'm strong fella whipping and 
 you stop along jail three fella year. Mr. Bur- 
 nett, he look 'm along Winchester, look 'm 
 along cartridge, look 'm along revolver, look 'm 
 along black powder, look 'm along dynamite 
 — my word, he cross too much, he give you 
 three fella year along jail. S'pose you no like 
 'm pay three fella pound you stop along jail. 
 Savvee .>"' 
 
 Gogoomy wavered. 
 
 " It's true — that's what Burnett would give 
 them," Sheldon said in an aside to Joan. 
 
 "You take 'm three fella pound along me," 
 Gogoomy muttered, at the same time scowling 
 his hatred at Sheldon and transferring half the 
 scowl to Joan and Kwaque. "Me finish along 
 you, you catch 'm big fella trouble, my word. 
 Father belong me big fella chief along Fort 
 Adams." 
 
 "That will do," Sheldon warned him. "You 
 shut mouth belong you." 
 
 "Me no fright," the son of a chief retorted, 
 by his insolence increasing his stature in the 
 eyes of his fellows. 
 
302 ADVENTURE 
 
 "Lock him up for to-night," Sheldon said to 
 Kwaque. "Sun he come up put 'm that fella 
 and five fella belong him along grass-cutting. 
 Savvee ?" 
 
 Kwaque grinned. 
 
 "Me sawee," he said. "Cut 'm grass, 
 ngari-ngari^ stop 'm along grass. My word!" 
 
 "There will be trouble with Gogoomy yet," 
 Sheldon said to Joan, as the boss-boys marshalled 
 their gangs and led them away to their work. 
 "Keep an eye on him. Be careful when you 
 are riding alone on the plantation. The loss of 
 those Winchesters and all that ammunition has 
 hit him harder than your cuffing did. He is 
 dead-ripe for mischief." 
 
 ^ Ngari-Ngari — literally, " scratch-scratch;" a vegetable skin 
 poisoning that, while not serious, is decidedly uncomfortable. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 GOGOOMY FINISHES ALONG KWAQUE ALTOGETHER 
 
 "X WONDER what has become of Tudor. 
 
 I It's two months since he disappeared into 
 the bush, and not a word of him after he 
 left Binu." 
 
 Joan Lackland was sittiilg astride her horse 
 by the bank of the Balesuna where the sweet 
 corn had been planted, and Sheldon, who had 
 come across from the house on foot, was leaning 
 against her horse's shoulder. 
 
 "Yes, it is a long time for no news to have 
 trickled down," he answered, watching her 
 keenly from under his hat-brim and wondering 
 as to the measure of her anxiety for the adven- 
 turous gold-hunter. "But Tudor will come out 
 all right. He did a thing at the start that I 
 wouldn't have given him or any other man 
 credit for — persuaded Binu Charley to go 
 along with him. I'll wager no other Binu nigger 
 
 303 
 
304 ADVENTURE 
 
 has ever gone so far into the bush unless to be 
 kai-kai'd. As for Tudor — " 
 
 "Look ! Look !" Joan cried in a low voice, 
 pointing across the narrow stream to a slack 
 eddy, where a huge crocodile drifted like a log 
 awash. "My ! I wish I had my rifle." 
 
 The crocodile, leaving scarcely a ripple behind, 
 sank down and disappeared. 
 
 "A Binu man was in early this morning — for 
 medicine," Sheldon remarked. "It may have 
 been that very brute that was responsible. A 
 dozen of the Binu women were out, and the 
 foremost one stepped right on a big crocodile. 
 It was by the edge of the water, and he tumbled 
 her over and got her by the leg. All the other 
 women got hold of her and pulled. And in the 
 tug of war she lost her leg. Below the knee, he 
 said. I gave him a stock of antiseptics. She'll 
 pull through, I fancy." 
 
 "Ugh — the filthy beasts," Joan gulped shud- 
 deringly. "I hate them! I hate them!" 
 
 "And yet you go diving among sharks," 
 Sheldon chided. 
 
 "They're only fish-sharks. And as long as 
 
ADVENTURE 305 
 
 there are plenty of fish there is no danger. It 
 is only when they're famished that they're 
 liable to take a bite." 
 
 Sheldon shuddered inwardly at the swift vision 
 that arose of the dainty flesh of her in a shark's 
 many-toothed maw. 
 
 "I wish you wouldn't, just the same," he said 
 slowly. "You acknowledge there is a risk." 
 
 "But that's half the fun of it," she cried. 
 
 A trite platitude about his not caring to lose 
 her was on his lips, but he refrained from utter- 
 ing it. Another conclusion he had arrived at 
 was that she was not to be nagged. Continual, 
 or even occasional, reminders of his feeling for 
 her would constitute a tactical error of no mean 
 dimensions. 
 
 "Some for the book of verse, some for the 
 simple life, and some for the shark's belly," 
 he laughed grimly; then added: "Just the 
 same, I wish I could swim as well as you. 
 Maybe it would beget confidence such as you 
 have." 
 
 "Do you know, I think it would be nice to be 
 married to a man such as you seem to be becom- 
 
3o6 ADVENTURE 
 
 ing," she remarked, with one of her abrupt 
 changes that always astounded him. "I should 
 think you could be trained into a very good 
 husband — you know, not one of the domineer- 
 ing kind, but one who considered his wife was 
 just as much an individual as himself and just 
 as much a free agent. Really, you know, I 
 think you are improving." 
 
 She laughed and rode away, leaving him 
 greatly cast down. If he had thought there had 
 been one bit of coyness in her words, one feminine 
 flutter, one womanly attempt at deliberate lure 
 and encouragement, he would have been elated. 
 But he knew absolutely that it was the boy, and 
 not the woman, who had so daringly spoken. 
 
 Joan rode on among the avenues of young 
 cocoanut palms, saw a hornbill, followed it in 
 its erratic flights to the high forest on the edge 
 of the plantation, heard the cooing of wild 
 pigeons and located them in the deeper woods, 
 followed the fresh trail of a wild pig for a dis- 
 tance, circled back, and took the narrow path 
 for the bungalow that ran through twenty acres 
 of uncleared cane. The grass was waist high 
 
ADVENTURE 307 
 
 and higher, and as she rode along she remem- 
 bered that Gogoomy was one of a gang of boys 
 that had been detailed to the grass-cutting. 
 She came to where they had been at work, but 
 saw no signs of them. Her unshod horse made 
 no sound on the soft, sandy footing, and a little 
 farther on she heard voices proceeding from out 
 of the grass. She reined in and listened. It was 
 Gogoomy talking, and as she listened she gripped 
 her bridle-rein tightly and a wave of anger 
 passed over her. 
 
 "Dog he stop 'm along house, night-time he 
 walk about," Gogoomy was saying, perforce 
 in beche-de-mer English, because he was talking 
 to others beside his own tribesmen. "You fella 
 boy catch 'm one fella pig, put 'm kai-kai belong 
 him along big fella fish-hook. S'pose dog he 
 walk about catch 'm kai-kai, you fella boy catch 
 'm dog allee same one shark. Dog he finish 
 close up. Big fella marster sleep along big fella 
 house. White Mary sleep along pickaninny 
 house. One fella Adamu he stop along outside 
 pickaninny house. You fella boy finish 'm dog, 
 finish 'm Adamu, finish 'm big fella marster, 
 
3o8 ADVENTURE 
 
 finish 'm white Mary, finish 'm altogether. 
 Plenty musket he stop, plenty powder, plenty 
 tomahawk, plenty knife-fee, plenty porpoise 
 teeth, plenty tobacco, plenty calico — my word, 
 too much plenty everything we take 'm along 
 whale-boat, washee ^ like hell, sun he come up we 
 long way too much." 
 
 "Me catch 'm pig sun he go down," spoke up 
 one whose thin falsetto voice Joan recognized 
 as belonging to Cosse, one of Gogoomy's tribes- 
 men. 
 
 "Me catch 'm dog," said another. 
 
 "And me catch 'm white fella Mary," Go- 
 goomy cried triumphantly. "Me catch 'm 
 Kwaque he die along him 'damn quick." 
 
 This much Joan heard of the plan to murder, 
 and then her rising wrath proved too much for 
 her discretion. She spurred her horse into the 
 grass, crying : 
 
 "What name you fella boy, eh ? What 
 name ?" 
 
 They arose, scrambling and scattering, and to 
 her surprise she saw there were a dozen of them. 
 
 » Paddle. 
 
ADVENTURE 309 
 
 As she looked in their glowering faces and noted 
 the heavy, two-foot, hacking cane-knives in their 
 hands, she became suddenly aware of the rash- 
 ness of her act. If only she had had her revolver 
 or a rifle, all would have been well. But she had 
 carelessly ventured out unarmed, and she fol- 
 lowed the glance of Gogoomy to her waist and 
 saw the pleased flash in his eyes as he per- 
 ceived the absence of the dreadful man-killing 
 revolver. 
 
 The first article in the Solomon Islands code 
 for white men was never to show fear before a 
 native, and Joan tried to carry off the situation 
 in cavalier fashion. 
 
 "Too much talk along you fella boy," she 
 said severely. "Too much talk, too little work. 
 Savvee ? " 
 
 Gogoomy made no reply, but, apparently 
 shifting weight, he slid one foot forward. The 
 other boys, spread fanwise about her, were also 
 sliding forward, the cruel cane-knives in their 
 hands advertising their intention. 
 
 "You cut 'm grass !" she commanded im- 
 peratively. 
 
3IO ADVENTURE 
 
 But Gogoomy slid his other foot forward. 
 She measured the distance with her eye. It 
 would be impossible to whirl her horse around 
 and get away. ,She would be chopped down 
 from behind. . 
 
 And in that tense moment the faces of all of 
 them were imprinted on her mind in an unfor- 
 gettable picture — one of them, an old man, 
 with torn and distended ear-lobes that fell to 
 his chest ; another, with the broad flattened nose 
 of Africa, and with withered'eyes so buried under 
 frowning brows that nothing but the sickly, 
 yellowish looking whites could be seen ; a third, 
 thick-lipped and bearded with kinky whiskers ; 
 and Gogoomy — she had never realized before 
 how handsorne Gogoomy was, in his mutinous 
 and obstinate wild-animal way. There was a 
 primitive aristocraticness about him that his 
 fellows lacked. The lines of his figure were 
 more rounded than theirs, the skin smooth, well- 
 oiled, and free from disease. On his chest, 
 suspended from a single string of porpoise teeth 
 around his throat, hung a big crescent carved 
 out of opalescent pearl-shell. A row of pure 
 
ADVENTURE 311 
 
 white cowrie shells banded his brow. From his 
 hair drooped a long, lone feather. Above the 
 swelling calf of one leg he wore, as a garter, a 
 single string of white beads. The effect was 
 dandyish in the extreme. A narrow gee-string 
 completed his costume. Another man she saw, 
 old and shrivelled, with puckered forehead and 
 a puckered face that trembled and worked with 
 animal passion as in the past she had noticed 
 the faces of monkeys tremble and work. 
 
 "Gogoomy," she said sharply, "you no cut 
 'm grass, my word, I bang 'm head belong 
 you." 
 
 His expression became a trifle more disdain- 
 ful, but he did not answer. Instead, he stole 
 a glance to right and left to mark how his 
 fellows were closing about her. At the same 
 moment he casually slipped his foot forward 
 through the grass for a matter of several inches. 
 
 Joan was keenly aware of the desperateness 
 of the situation. The only way out was through. 
 She lifted her riding-whip threateningly, and at 
 the same moment drove in both spurs with her 
 heels, rushing the startled horse straight at 
 
312 ADVENTURE 
 
 Gogoomy. It all happened in an instant. 
 Every cane-knife was lifted, and every boy 
 save Gogoomy leaped for her. He swerved 
 aside to avoid the horse, at the same time 
 swinging his cane-knife in a slicing blow that 
 would have cut her in twain. She leaned 
 forward under the flying steel, which cut through 
 her riding-skirt, through the edge of the saddle, 
 through the saddle-cloth, and even slightly into 
 the horse itself. Her right hand, still raised, 
 came down, the thin whip whishing through the 
 air. She saw the white, cooked mark of the 
 weal clear across the sullen, handsome face, 
 and still what was practically in the same 
 instant she saw the man with the puckered 
 face, over-ridden, go down before her, and she 
 heard his snarling and grimacing chatter — for 
 all the world like an angry monkey. Then she 
 was free and away, heading the horse at top 
 speed for the house. 
 
 Out of her sea-training she was able to 
 appreciate Sheldon's executiveness when she 
 burst in on him with her news. Springing from 
 the steamer chair in which he had been lounging 
 
ADVENTURE 313 
 
 while waiting for breakfast, he clapped his 
 hands for the house-boys ; and, while listening 
 to her, he was buckling on his cartridge-belt and 
 running the mechanism of his automatic pistol. 
 
 "Ornfiri," he snapped out his orders, "you 
 fella ring big fella bell strong fella plenty. 
 You finish 'm bell, you put 'm saddle on horse. 
 Viaburi, you go quick house belong Seelee he 
 stop, tell 'm plenty black fella run away — ten 
 fella two fella black fella boy." He scribbled 
 a note and handed it to Lalaperu. "Lalaperu, 
 you go quick house belong white fella marster 
 Boucher." 
 
 "That will head them back from the coast 
 on both sides," he explained to Joan. "And 
 old Seelee will turn his whole village loose on 
 their track as well." 
 
 In response to the summons of the big bell, 
 Joan's Tahitians were the first to arrive, by 
 their glistening bodies and panting chests show- 
 ing that they had run all the way. Some of 
 the farthest-placed gangs would be nearly an 
 hour in arriving. 
 
 Sheldon proceeded to arm Joan's sailors and 
 
314 ADVENTURE 
 
 deal out ammunition and handcuffs. Adamu 
 Adam, with loaded rifle, he placed on guard 
 over the whale-boats. Noa Noah, aided by 
 Matapuu, were instructed to take charge of the 
 working gangs as fast as they came in, to keep 
 them amused, and to guard against their being 
 stampeded into making a break themselves. 
 The five other Tahitians were to follow Joan 
 and Sheldon on foot. 
 
 "I'm glad we unearthed that arsenal the 
 other day," Sheldon remarked as they rode out 
 of the compound gate. 
 
 A hundred yards away they encountered 
 one of the 'clearing gangs coming in. It was 
 Kwaque's gang, but Sheldon looked in vain for 
 him. 
 
 "What name that fella Kwaque he no stop 
 along you ?" he demanded. 
 
 A babel of excited voices attempted an answer. 
 
 "Shut 'm mouth belong you altogether," 
 Sheldon commanded. 
 
 He spoke roughly, living up to the role of the 
 white man who must always be strong and 
 dominant. 
 
ADVENTURE 315 
 
 "Here, you fella Babatani, you talk 'm mouth 
 belong you." 
 
 Babatani stepped forward in all the pride of 
 one singled out from among his fellows. 
 
 "Gogoomy he finish along Kwaque alto- 
 gether," was Babatani's explanation. "He take 
 'm head b'long him run like hell." 
 
 In brief words, and with paucity of imagina- 
 tion, he described the murder, and Sheldon and 
 Joan rode on. In the grass, where Joan had 
 been attacked, they found the little shrivelled 
 man, still chattering and grimacing, whom Joan 
 had ridden down. The mare had plunged 
 on his ankle, completely crushing it, and a 
 hundred yards' crawl had convinced him of 
 the futility of escape. To the last clearing 
 gang, from the farthest edge of the plantation, 
 was given the task of carrying him into the 
 house. 
 
 A mile farther on, where the runaways' 
 trail led straight toward the bush, they en- 
 countered the body of Kwaque. The head had 
 been hacked off and was missing, and Sheldon 
 took it on faith that the body was Kwaque's. 
 
3i6 ADVENTURE 
 
 He had evidently put up a fight, for a bloody 
 trail led way from the body. 
 
 Once they were well into the thick bush, the 
 horses had to be abandoned. Papehara was 
 left in charge of them, while Joan and Sheldon 
 and the remaining Tahitians pushed ahead on 
 foot. The way led down through a swampy 
 hollow, which was overflowed by the Berande 
 River on occasion, and where the red trail of 
 the murderers was crossed by a crocodile's 
 trail. They had apparently caught the creature 
 asleep in the sun and desisted long >enough 
 from their flight to hack him to pieces. Here 
 the wounded man had sat down and waited 
 until they were ready to go on. 
 
 An hour later, following along a wild-pig trail, 
 Sheldon suddenly halted. The bloody tracks had 
 ceased. The Tahitians cast out in the bush on 
 either side, and a cry from Utami apprised them 
 of a find. Jpan waited till Sheldon came back. 
 
 "It's Mauko," he said. "Kwaque did for 
 him, and he crawled in there and died. That's 
 two accounted for. There are ten more. Don't 
 you think you've got enough of it ?" 
 
ADVENTURE 317 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "It isn't nice," she said. "I'll go back and 
 wait for you with the horses." 
 
 "But you can't go alone. Take two of the 
 
 men." 
 
 "Then I'll go on," she said. "It would be 
 foolish to weaken the pursuit, and I am cer- 
 tainly not tired." 
 
 The trail bent to the right as though the 
 runaways had changed their minds and headed 
 for the Balesuna. But the trail still continued 
 to bend to the right till it promised to make a 
 loop, and the point of intersection seemed to 
 be the edge of the plantation where the horses 
 had been left. Crossing one of the quiet jungle 
 spaces, where naught moved but a velvety, 
 twelve-inch butterfly, they heard the sound of 
 shots. 
 
 "Eight," Joan counted. "It was only one 
 gun. It must be Papehara." 
 
 They hurried on, but when they reached the 
 spot they were in doubt. The two horses stood 
 quietly tethered, and Papehara, squatted on 
 his hams, was having a peaceful smoke. Ad- 
 
3i8 ADVENTURE 
 
 vancing toward him, Sheldon tripped on a body 
 that lay in the grass, and as he saved himself 
 from falling, his eyes lighted on a second. Joan 
 recognized this one. It was Cosse, one of 
 Gogoomy's tribesmen, the one who had promised 
 to catch at sunset the pig that was to have 
 baited the hook for Satan. 
 
 "No luck, Missie," was Papehara's greeting, 
 accompanied by a disconsolate shake of the 
 head. "Catch only two boy. I have good 
 shot at Gogoomy, only I miss." 
 
 "But you killed them," Joan chided. "You 
 must catch them alive." 
 
 The Tahitian smiled. 
 
 "How ?" he queried. "I am have a smoke. 
 I think about Tahiti, and breadfruit, and jolly 
 good time at Bora Bora. Quick, just like that, 
 ten boy he run out of bush for me. Each boy 
 have long knife. Gogoomy have long knife 
 one hand, and Kwaque's head in other hand. 
 I no stop to catch 'em alive. I shoot like hell. 
 How you catch 'em alive, ten boy, ten long 
 knife, and Kwaque's head ?" 
 
 The scattered paths of the different boys, 
 
ADVENTURE 319 
 
 where they broke back after the disastrous 
 attempt to rush the Tahitian, soon led together. 
 They traced it to the Berande, which the run- 
 aways had crossed with the clear intention of 
 burying themselves in the huge mangrove swamp 
 that lay beyond. 
 
 "There is no use our going any farther," 
 Sheldon said. "Seelee will turn out his village 
 and hunt them out of that. They'll never get 
 past him. All we can do is to guard the coast 
 and keep them from breaking back on the 
 plantation and running amuck. Ah, I thought 
 so." 
 
 Against the jungle gloom of the farther 
 shore, coming' from downstream, a small canoe 
 glided. So silently did it move that it was 
 more like an apparition. Three naked blacks 
 dipped with noiseless paddles. Long-hafted, 
 slender, bone-barbed throwing-spears lay along 
 the gunwale of the canoe, while a quiverful of 
 arrows hung on each man's back. The eyes of 
 the man-hunters missed nothing. They had 
 seen Sheldon and Joan first, but they gave no 
 sign. Where Gogoomy and his followers had 
 
320 ADVENTURE 
 
 emerged from the river, the canoe abruptly- 
 stopped, then turned and disappeared into the 
 deeper mangrove-gloom. A second and a third 
 canoe came around the bend from below, 
 glided ghostlike to the crossing of the runaways, 
 and vanished in the mangroves. 
 
 "I hope there won't be any more killing," 
 Joan said, as they turned their horses home- 
 ward. 
 
 " I don't think so," Sheldon assured her. 
 "My understanding with old Seelee is that he is 
 paid only for live boys ; so he is very careful." 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 A MESSAGE FROM THE BUSH 
 
 NEVER had runaways from Berande been 
 more zealously hunted. The deeds of 
 Gogoomy and his fellows had been a bad 
 example for the one hundred and fifty new 
 recruits. Murder had been planned, a gang- 
 boss had been killed, and the murderers had 
 broken their contracts by fleeing to the bush. 
 Sheldon saw how imperative it was to teach 
 his new-caught cannibals that bad examples 
 were disastrous things to pattern after, and he 
 urged Seelee on night and day, while with the 
 Tahitians he practically lived in the bush, leav- 
 ing Joan in charge of the plantation. To the 
 north, Boucher did good work, twice turning 
 the fugitives back when they attempted to gain 
 the coast. 
 
 One by one the boys were captured. In the 
 first man-drive through the mangrove swamp 
 If 321 
 
322 ADVENTURE 
 
 Seelee caught two. Circling around to the north, 
 a third was wounded in the thigh by Boucher, 
 and this one, dragging behind in the chase, was 
 later gathered in by Seelee's hunters. The three 
 captives, heavily ironed, were exposed each day 
 in the compound, as good examples of what 
 happened to bad examples, all for the edifica- 
 tion of the seven score and ten half-wild Poonga- 
 Poonga men. Then the Minerva, running past 
 for Tulagi, was signalled to send a boat, and the 
 three prisoners were carried away to prison to 
 await trial. 
 
 Five were still at large, but escape was im- 
 possible. They could not get down to the 
 coast, nor dared they venture too far inland 
 for fear of the wild bushmen. Then one of the 
 five came in voluntarily and gave himself up, 
 and Sheldon learned that Gogoomy and two 
 others were all that were at large. There 
 should have been a fourth, but according to the 
 man who had given himself up, the fourth man 
 had been killed and eaten. It had been fear 
 of a similar fate that had driven him in. He 
 was a Malu man, from northwestern Malaita, 
 
ADVENTURE 323 
 
 as likewise had been the one that was eaten. 
 Gogoomy's two other companions were from 
 Port Adams. As for himself, the black declared 
 his preference for government trial and punish- 
 ment to being eaten by his companions in the 
 bush. 
 
 "Close up Gogoomy kai-kai me," he said. 
 "My word, me no like boy kai-kai me." 
 
 Three days later, Sheldon caught one of the 
 boys, helpless from swamp fever and unable to 
 fight or run away. On the same day Seelee 
 caught the second boy, in similar condition. 
 Gogoomy alone remained at large ; and, as the 
 pursuit closed in on him, he conquered his fear 
 of the bushmen and headed straight in for the 
 mountainous backbone of the island. Sheldon 
 with four Tahitians, and Seelee with thirty of his 
 hunters, followed Gogoomy's trail a dozen miles 
 into the open grass lands ; and then Seelee and his 
 people lost heart. He confessed that neither 
 he nor any of his tribe had ever ventured so far 
 inland before, and he narrated, for Sheldon's 
 benefit, most horrible tales of the horrible bush- 
 men. In the old days, he said, they had crossed 
 
324 ADVENTURE 
 
 the grass lands and attacked the salt-water 
 natives ; but since the coming of the white men 
 to the coast they had remained in their interior 
 fastnesses, and no salt-water native had ever 
 seen them again, 
 
 " Gogoomy he finish along them fella bush- 
 men," he assured Sheldon. "My word, he 
 finish close up, kai-kai altogether." 
 
 So the expedition turned back. Nothing 
 could persuade the coast natives to venture 
 farther, and Sheldon, with his four Tahitians, 
 knew that it was madness to go on alone. So 
 he stood waist-deep in the grass and looked 
 regretfully , across the rolling savannah and the 
 soft-swelling foothills to the Lion's Head, a 
 massive peak of rock that upreared into the 
 azure from the midmost centre of Guadalcanar, 
 a landmark used for bearings by every coasting 
 mariner, a mountain as yet untrod by the foot 
 of a white man. 
 
 That night, after dinner, Sheldon and Joan 
 were playing billiards, when Satan barked in the 
 compound, and Lalaperu, sent to see, brought 
 back a tired and travel-stained native who 
 
ADVENTURE 325 
 
 wanted to talk with the "big fella white mars- 
 ter." It was only the man's insistence that 
 procured him admittance at such an hour, 
 Sheldon went out on the veranda to see him, 
 and, at first glance at the gaunt features and 
 wasted body of the man, knew that his errand 
 was likely to prove important. Nevertheless, 
 Sheldon demanded roughly : 
 
 "What name you come along house belong 
 me sun he go down ?" 
 
 "Me Charley," the man muttered apologeti- 
 cally and wearily. "Me stop along Binu." 
 
 "Ah, Binu Charley, eh ? Well, what name 
 you talk along me ? What place big fella 
 marster along white man he stop ?" 
 
 Joan and Sheldon together listened to the tale 
 Binu Charley had brought. He described 
 Tudor's expedition up the Balesuna, the drag- 
 ging of the boats up the rapids, the passage up 
 the river where it threaded the grass lands, the 
 innumerable washings of gravel by the white 
 men in search of gold, the first rolling foothills, 
 the man-traps of spear-staked pits in the jungle 
 trails, the first meeting with the bushmen who 
 
326 ADVENTURE 
 
 had never seen tobacco and knew not the virtues 
 of smoking, their friendliness, the deeper pene- 
 tration of the interior around the flanks of the 
 Lion's Head, the bush-sores and the fevers of the 
 white men, and their madness in trusting the 
 bushmen. 
 
 "Alee time I talk along white fella marster," 
 he said. "Me talk : 'That fella bushman he 
 look 'm eye belong him. He savvee too much. 
 S'pose musket he stop along you, that fella 
 bushman he too much good friend along you. 
 AUee time he look sharp eye belong him. S'pose 
 musket he no stop along you, my word, that 
 fella bushman he chop 'm off head belong you. 
 He kai-kai you altogether.'" 
 
 But the patience of the bushmen had exceeded 
 that of the white men. The weeks had gone by, 
 and no overt acts had been attempted. The 
 bushmen swarmed in the camp in increasing 
 numbers, and they were always making presents 
 of yams and taro, of pig and fowl, and of wild 
 fruits and vegetables. Whenever the gold- 
 hunters moved their camp, the bushmen volun- 
 teered to carry the luggage. And the white 
 
ADVENTURE 3^7 
 
 men waxed ever more careless. They ever 
 grew weary prospecting and at the same time 
 carrying their rifles and the heavy cartridge- 
 belts, and the practice began of leaving their 
 weapons behind them in camp. 
 
 "I tell 'm plenty fella white marster look 
 sharp eye belong him. And plenty fella white 
 marster make 'm big laugh along me, say Binu 
 Charley allee same pickaninny — my word, 
 they speak along me allee same pickaninny." 
 
 Came the morning when Binu Charley noticed 
 that the women and children had disappeared. 
 Tudor, at the time, was lying in a stupor with 
 fever in a late camp five miles away, the main 
 camp having moved on those five miles in order 
 to prospect an outcrop of likely quartz. Binu 
 Charley was midway between the two camps 
 when the absejice of the women and children 
 struck him as suspicious. 
 
 "My word," he said, "me t'ink like hell. 
 Him black Mary, him pickaninny, walk about 
 long way big bit. What name ? Me savvee 
 too much trouble close up. Me fright like hell. 
 Me run. My word, me run." 
 
328 ADVENTURE 
 
 Tudor, quite unconscious, was slung across 
 his shoulder and carried a mile down the trail. 
 Here, hiding new trail, Binu Charley had car- 
 ried him for a quarter of a mile into the heart of 
 the deepest jungle and hidden him in a big 
 banyan tree. Returning to try to save the 
 rifles and personal outfit, Binu Charley had seen 
 a party of bushmen trotting down the trail, and 
 had hidden in the bush. Here, and from the 
 direction of the main camp, he had heard two 
 rifle shots. And that was all. He had never 
 seen the white men again, nor had he ventured 
 near their old camp. He had gon? back to 
 Tudor, and hidden with him for a week, living 
 on wild fruits and the few pigeons and cockatoos 
 he had been able to shoot with bow and arrow. 
 Then he had journeyed down to Berande to 
 bring the news. Tudor, he said, was very sick, 
 lying unconscious for days at a time, and, when 
 in his right mind, too weak to help himself. 
 
 "What name you no kill 'm that big fella 
 riiarster ?" Joan demanded. "He have 'm good 
 fella musket, plenty calico, plenty tobacco, 
 plenty knife-fee, and two fella pickaninny mus- 
 
ADVENTURE 329 
 
 ket shoot quick, bang-bang-bang — -just like 
 that." 
 
 The black smiled cunningly, 
 
 "Me savvee too much. S'pose me kill 'm big 
 fella marster, bime by plenty white fella marster 
 .walk about Binu cross like hell. 'What name this 
 fella musket .'"those plenty fella white marster talk 
 'm along me. My word Binu Charley finish alto- 
 gether. S'pose me kill 'm him, no good along me. 
 ' Plenty white fella marster cross along me. S'pose 
 me no kill 'm him, bime by he give me plenty to- 
 bacco, plenty calico, plenty everything too much." 
 
 "There is only the one thing to do," Sheldon 
 said to Joan. 
 
 She drummed with her hand and waited, 
 while Binu Charley gazed wearily at her with 
 unblinking eyes. 
 
 "I'll start the first thing in the morning," 
 Sheldon said. 
 
 "We'll start," she corrected. "I can get 
 twice as much out of my Tahitians as you can, 
 and, besides, one white should never be alone 
 under such circumstances." 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders in token, not of 
 
330 ADVENTURE 
 
 consent, but of surrender, knowing the useless- 
 ness of attempting to argue the question with 
 her, and consoling himself with the reflection 
 that heaven alone knew what adventures she 
 was liable to engage in if left alone on Berande 
 for a week. He clapped his hands, and for the 
 next quarter of an hour the house-boys were 
 kept busy carrying messages to the barracks. 
 A man was sent to Balesuna village to command 
 old Seelee's immediate presence. A boat's crew 
 was started in a whale-boat with word for 
 Boucher to come down. Ammunition was issued 
 to the Tahitians, and the store-room overhauled 
 for a few days' tinned provisions. Viaburi 
 turned yellow when told that he was to accom- 
 pany the expedition, and, to everybody's sur- 
 prise, Lalaperu volunteered to take his place. 
 Seelee arrived, proud in his importance that 
 the great master of Berande should summon 
 him in the night-time for council, and firm in his 
 refusal to step one inch within the dread domain 
 of the bushmen. As he said, if his opinion had 
 been asked when the gold-hunters started, he 
 would have foretold their disastrous end. There 
 
ADVENTURE 331 
 
 was only one thing that happened to any one 
 who ventured into the bushmen's territory, and 
 that was that he was eaten. And he would 
 further say, without being asked, that if Sheldon 
 went up into the bush, he would be eaten, too. 
 
 Sheldon sent for a gang-boss and told him to 
 bring ten of the biggest, best, and strongest 
 Poonga-Poonga men. 
 
 "Not salt-water boys," Sheldon cautioned, 
 "but bush-boys — leg belong him strong fella 
 leg. Boy no sawee musket, no good. You 
 bring 'm shoot musket strong fella." 
 
 They were ten picked men that filed up on the 
 veranda and stood in the glare of the lanterns. 
 Their heavy, muscular legs advertised that they 
 were bu&hmen. Each claimed long experience 
 in bush-fighting, most of them showed scars of 
 bullet or spear-thrust in proof, and all were 
 wild for a chance to break the humdrum mo- 
 notony of plantation labor by going on a killing 
 expedition. Killing was their natural vocation, 
 not weed-cutting; and, while they would not 
 have ventured the Guadalcanar bush alone, with 
 a white man like Sheldon behind them, and a 
 
332 ADVENTURE 
 
 white Mary such as they knew Joan to be, 
 they could expect a safe and delightful time. 
 Besides, the great master had told them that 
 the eight gigantic Tahitians were going along. 
 
 The Poonga-Poonga volunteers stood with 
 glistening eyes and grinning faces, naked, save 
 for their loin-cloths, and barbarously ornamented. 
 Each wore a flat, turtle-shell ring suspended 
 through his nose, and each carried a clay-pipe in an 
 ear-hole or thrust inside a beaded biceps-armlet. 
 A pair of magnificent boar tusks graced the chest 
 of one. On the chest of another hung a huge disk 
 of polished fossil clamshell. " Plenty strong fella 
 fight," Sheldon warned them in conclusion. 
 
 They grinned and shifted delightedly. 
 
 "S'pose bushmen kai-kai along you?" he 
 queried. 
 
 "No fear," answered their spokesman, one 
 Koogoo, a strapping, thick-lipped ethiopian- 
 looking man. " S'pose Poonga-Poonga boy kai- 
 kai bush-boy ? " 
 
 Sheldon shook his head, laughing, and dis- 
 missed them, and went to overhaul the dunnage- 
 room for a small shelter-tent for Joan's use. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 IN THE BUSH 
 
 IT was quite a formidable expedition that 
 departed from Berande at break of day- 
 next morning in a fleet of canoes and 
 dingeys. There were Joan and Sheldon, with 
 Binu Charley and Lalaperu, the eight Tahi- 
 tians, and the ten Poonga-Poonga men, each 
 proud in the possession of a bright and shining 
 modern rifle. In addition, there were two of 
 the plantation boat's crews of six men each. 
 These, however, were to go no farther than 
 Carli, where water transportation ceased and 
 where they were to wait with the boats. 
 Boucher remained behind in charge of Berande. 
 By eleven in the morning, the expedition 
 arrived at Binu, a cluster of twenty houses on 
 the river bank. And from here thirty-odd Binu 
 men accompanied them, armed with spears and 
 arrows, chattering and grimacing with delight 
 
 333 
 
334 ADVENTURE 
 
 at the warlike array. The long quiet stretches 
 of river gave way to swifter water, and progress 
 was slower and more dogged. The Balesuna 
 grew shallow as well, and oftener were the 
 loaded boats bumped along and half lifted over 
 the bottom. In places timber-falls blocked the 
 passage of the narrow stream and the boats and 
 canoes were portaged around. Night brought 
 them to Carli, and they had the satisfaction of 
 knowing that they had accomplished in one 
 day what had required two days for Tudor's 
 expedition. 
 
 Here at Carli, next morning, half way through 
 the grass lands, the boat's crews were left, 
 and with them the horde of Binu men, the bold- 
 est of which held on for a bare mile and then 
 ran scampering back. Binu Charley, however, 
 was at the fore, and led the way onward into the 
 rolling foot hills, following the trail made by 
 Tudor and his men weeks before. That night 
 they camped well into the hills and deep in the 
 tropic jungle. The third day found them on the 
 runways of the bushmen — narrow paths that 
 compelled single file and that turned and twisted 
 
ADVENTURE 335 
 
 with endless convolutions through the dense 
 undergrowth. For the most part it was a silent 
 forest, lush and dank, where only occasionally a 
 wood-pigeon cooed or snow-white cockatoos 
 laughed harshly in laborious flight. 
 
 Here, in the mid-morning, the first casualty 
 occurred. Binu Charley had dropped behind 
 for a time, and Koogoo, the Poonga-Poonga man 
 who had boasted that he would eat the bushmen, 
 was in the lead. Joan and Sheldon heard the 
 twanging thrum and saw Koogoo throw out his 
 arms, at the same time dropping his rifle, stumble 
 forward, and sink down on his hands and knees. 
 Between his naked shoulders, low down and to the 
 left, appeared the bone-barbed head of an arrow. 
 He had been shot through and through. Cocked 
 rifles swept the bush with nervous apprehension. 
 But there was no rustle, no movement ; nothing 
 but the humid oppressive silence. 
 
 "Bushmen he no stop," Binu Charley called 
 out, the sound of his voice startling more than 
 one of them. "AUee same damn funny busi- 
 ness. That fella Koogoo no look 'm eye belong 
 him. He no savvee little bit." 
 
336 ADVENTURE 
 
 Koogoo's arms had crumpled under him, and 
 he lay quivering where he had fallen. Even as 
 Binu Charley came to the front, the stricken 
 black's breath passed from him, and with a final 
 convulsive stir he lay still. 
 
 "Right through the heart," Sheldon said, 
 straightening up from the stooping examina- 
 tion. "It must have been a trap of some sort." 
 
 He noticed Joan's white, tense face, and the 
 wide eyes with which she stared at the wreck of 
 what had been a man the minute before. 
 
 "I recruited that boy myself," she said in a 
 whisper. "He came dov/n out of the bush at 
 Poonga-Poonga and right on board the Martha, 
 and offered himself. And I was proud. He was 
 my very first recruit — " 
 
 "My word ! Look 'm that fella," Binu 
 Charley interrupted, brushing aside the leafy 
 wall of the runway, and exposing a bow so 
 massive that no one bushman could have bent it. 
 
 The Binu man traced out the mechanics of 
 the trap, and exposed the hidden fiber in the 
 tangled undergrowth that at contact with Koo- 
 goo's foot had released the taut bow. 
 
ADVENTURE 337 
 
 They were deep in the primeval forest. A 
 dim twilight prevailed, for no random shaft of 
 sunlight broke through the thick roof of leaves 
 and creepers overhead. The Tahitians were 
 plainly awed by the silence and gloom and mys- 
 tery of the place and happening, but they 
 showed themselves doggedly unafraid and were 
 for pushing on. The Poonga-Poonga men, on 
 the contrary, were not awed. They were bush- 
 men themselves, and they were used to this 
 silent warfare, though the devices were different 
 from those employed by them in their own bush. 
 Most awed of all were Joan and Sheldon, but, 
 being whites, they were not supposed to be sub- 
 ject to such commonplace emotions, and their 
 task was to carry the situation off with careless 
 bravado as befitted "big fella marsters" of the 
 dominant breed. 
 
 Binu Charley took the lead as they pushed on, 
 and trap after trap yielded its secret lurking- 
 place to his keen scrutiny. The way was beset 
 with a thousand annoyances, chiefest among 
 which were thorns, cunningly concealed, that 
 penetrated the bare feet of the invaders. Once, 
 
338 ADVENTURE 
 
 during the afternoon, Binu Charley barely missed 
 being impaled in a staked pit that undermined 
 the trail. There were times when all stood still 
 and waited for half an hour or more, while Binu 
 Charley prospected suspicious parts of the trail. 
 Sometimes he was compelled to leave the trail 
 and creep and climb through the jungle so as to 
 approach the man-traps from behind, and on 
 one occasion, in spite of his precaution, a spring- 
 bow was discharged, the flying arrow barely 
 clipping the shoulder of one of the waiting 
 Poonga-Poonga boys. 
 
 Where a slight runway entered the main one, 
 Sheldon paused and asked Binu Charley if he 
 knew where it led. 
 
 "Plenty bush fella garden he stop along there 
 short way little bit," was the answer. "All 
 right you like 'm go look 'm along." 
 
 "Walk 'm easy," he cautioned, a few minutes 
 later. "Close up, that fella garden. S'pose 
 some bush fella he stop, we catch 'm." 
 
 Creeping ahead and peering into the clearing 
 for a moment, Binu Charley beckdned Sheldon 
 to come on cautiously. Joan crouched beside 
 
ADVENTURE 339 
 
 him, and together they peeped out. The 
 cleared space was fully half an acre in extent 
 and carefully fenced against the wild pigs. 
 Paw-paw and banana trees were just ripening 
 their fruit, while beneath grew sweet potatoes 
 and yams. On one edge of the clearing was a 
 small grass house, open-sided, a mere rain- 
 shelter. In front of it, crouched on his hams 
 before a fire, was a gaunt and bearded bush- 
 man. The fire seemed to smoke excessively, 
 and in the thick of the smoke a round dark 
 object hung suspended. The bushman seemed 
 absorbed in contemplation of this object. 
 
 Warning them not to shoot unless the man 
 was successfully escaping, Sheldon beckoned 
 the Poonga-Poonga men forward. Joan smiled 
 appreciatively to Sheldon. It was head-huntfers 
 against head-hunters. The blacks trod noise- 
 lessly to their stations, which were arranged so 
 that they could spring simultaneously into the 
 open. Their faces were keen and serious, their 
 eyes eloquent with the ecstasy of living that 
 was upon them ; for this was living, this game 
 of life and death, and to them it was the only 
 
340 ADVENTURE 
 
 game a man should play, withal they played it 
 in low and cowardly ways, killing from behind 
 in the dim forest gloom and rarely coming out 
 into the open. 
 
 Sheldon whispered the word, and the ten 
 runners leaped forward — for Binu Charley 
 ran with them. The bushman's keen ears 
 warned him, and he sprang to his feet, bow and 
 arrow in hand, the arrow fixed in the notch and 
 the bow bending as he sprang. The man he 
 let drive at, dodged the arrow, and before he 
 could shoot .another, his enemies were upon 
 him. He was rolled over and over and dragged 
 to his feet, disarmed and helpless. 
 
 "Why, he's an ancient Babylonian!" Joan 
 cried, regarding him. "He's an Assyrian, a 
 Phoenician ! Look at that straight nose, that 
 narrow face, those high cheek-bones — and 
 that slanting, oval forehead, and the beard, 
 and the eyes, too." 
 
 "And the snaky locks," Sheldon laughed. 
 
 The bushman was in mortal fear, led by all 
 his training to expect nothing less than death; 
 yet he did not cower away from them. Instead, 
 
ADVENTURE 341 
 
 he returned their looks with lean self-sufficiency, 
 and finally centred his gaze upon Joan, the 
 first white woman he had ever seen. 
 
 "My word, bush fella kai-kai along that fella 
 boy," Binu Charley remarked. 
 
 So stolid was his manner of utterance that 
 Joan turned carelessly to see what had at- 
 tracted his attention and found herself face to 
 face with Gogoomy. At least it was the head 
 of Gogoomy — the dark object they had seen 
 hanging in the smoke. It was fresh — the 
 smoke-curing had just begun — and, save for 
 the closed eyes, all the sullen handsomeness 
 and animal virility of the boy, as Joan had 
 known it, was still to be seen in the monstrous 
 thing that twisted and dangled in the eddying 
 smoke. 
 
 Nor was Joan's horror lessened by the con- 
 duct of the Poonga-Poonga boys. On the in- 
 stant they recognized the head, and on the 
 instant rose their wild hearty laughter as they 
 explained to one another in shrill falsetto 
 voices. Gogoomy's end was a joke. He had 
 been foiled in his attempt to escape. He had 
 
342 ADVENTURE 
 
 played the game and lost. And what greater 
 joke could there be than that the bushmen 
 should have eaten him ? It was the funniest 
 incident that had come under their notice in 
 many a day. And to them there was certainly 
 nothing unusual nor bizarre in the event. 
 Gogoomy had completed the life-cycle of the 
 bushman. He had taken heads, and now his 
 own head had been taken. He had eaten men, 
 and now he had been eaten by men. 
 
 The Poonga-Poonga men's laughter died 
 down, and they regarded the spectacle with 
 glittering eyes and gluttonous expressions. The 
 Tahitians, on the other hand, were shocked, and 
 Adamu Adam was shaking his head slowly and 
 grunting forth his disgust. Joan was angry. 
 Her face was white, but in each cheek was a 
 vivid spray of red. Disgust had been displaced 
 by wrath, and her mood was clearly vengeful. 
 
 Sheldon laughed. 
 
 "It's nothing to be angry over," he said. 
 "You mustn't forget that he hacked off Kwaque's 
 head, and that he ate one of his own comrades 
 that ran away with him. Besides, he was 
 
ADVENTURE 343 
 
 born to it. He has but been eaten out of the 
 same trough from which he himself has eaten." 
 
 Joan looked at him with lips that trembled 
 on the verge of speech. 
 
 "And don't forget," Sheldon added, "that 
 he is the son of a chief, and that as sure as fate, 
 his Port Adams tribesmen will take a white 
 man's head in payment," 
 
 "It is all so ghastly ridiculous," Joan finally 
 said. 
 
 "And — er — romantic," he suggested slyly. 
 
 She did not answer, and turned away; but 
 Sheldon knew that the shaft had gone home. 
 
 "That fella boy he sick, belly belong him 
 walk about," Binu Charley said, pointing to 
 the Poonga-Poonga man whose shoulder had 
 been scratched by the arrow an hour before. 
 
 The boy was sitting down and groaning, his 
 arms clasping his bent knees, his head drooped 
 forward and rolling painfully back and forth. 
 For fear of poison, Sheldon had immediately 
 scarified the wound and injected permanganate 
 of potash; but in spite of the precaution, the 
 shoulder was swelling rapidly. 
 
344 ADVENTURE 
 
 "We'll take him on to where Tudor is lying," 
 Joan said. "The walking will help to keep up 
 his circulation and scatter the poison. Adamu 
 Adam, you take hold that boy. Maybe he will 
 want to sleep. Shake hirn up. If he ^leep, he 
 die." 
 
 The advance was more rapid now, for Binu 
 Charley placed the captive bushman in front of 
 him and made him clear the runway of traps. 
 Once, at a sharp turn where a man's shoulder 
 would unavoidably brush against a screen of 
 leaves, the bushman displayed great caution as he 
 spread the leaves aside and exposed the head of a 
 sharp-pointed spear, so set that the casual passer- 
 by would receive at the least a nasty scratch. 
 
 "My word," said Binu Charley, "that fella 
 spear allee same devil-devil." 
 
 He took the spear and was examining it, 
 when suddenly he made as if to stick it into 
 the bushman. It was a bit of simulated play- 
 fulness, but the bushman sprang back in evi- 
 dent fright. Poisoned the weapon was beyond 
 any doubt, and thereafter Binu Charley carried 
 it threateningly at the prisoner's back. 
 
ADVENTURE 345 
 
 The sun, sinking behind a lofty western peak, 
 brought on an early but lingering twilight, and 
 the expedition plodded on through the evil 
 forest — the place of mystery and fear, of death 
 swift and silent and horrible, of brutish appe- 
 tite and degraded instinct, of human life that 
 still wallowed in the primeval slime, of savagery 
 degenerate and abysmal. No slightest breezes 
 blew in the gloomy silence, and the air was stale 
 and humid arid suffocating. The sweat poured 
 unceasingly from their bodies, and in their nostrils 
 was the heavy smell of rotting vegetation and of 
 black earth that was a-crawl with fecund life. 
 
 They turned aside ^from the runway at a 
 place indicated by Binu Charley, and, some- 
 times crawling on hands and knees through 
 the damp black muck, at other times creeping 
 and climbing through the tangled undergrowth 
 a dozen feet from the ground, they came to an 
 immense banyan tree, half an acre in extent, 
 that made in the innermost heart of the jungle 
 a denser jungle of its own. From out of its 
 black depths came the voice of a man singing 
 in a cracked eerie voice. 
 
34.6 ADVENTURE 
 
 "My word, that big fella marster he no die !" 
 
 The singing stopped, and the voice, faint and 
 weak, called out a hello. Joan answered, and 
 then the voice explained. 
 
 "I'm not wandering. I was just singing to 
 keep my spirits up. Have you got anything 
 to eat ?" 
 
 A few minutes saw the rescued man lying 
 among blankets, while fires were building, water 
 was being carried, Joan's tent was going up, and 
 Lalaperu was overhauling the packs and open- 
 ing tins of provisions. Tudor, having pulled 
 through the fever and started to mend, was 
 still frightfully weak and very much starved. 
 So badly swollen was he from mosquito bites 
 that his face was unrecognizable, and the accept- 
 ance of his identity was largely a matter of 
 faith. Joan had her own ointments along, and 
 she prefaced their application by fomenting 
 his swollen features with hot cloths. Sheldon, 
 with an eye to the camp and the preparations 
 for the night, looked on and felt the pangs of 
 jealousy at every contact of her hands with 
 Tudor's face and body. Somehow, engaged in 
 
ADVENTURE 347 
 
 their healing ministrations, they no longer 
 seemed to him boy's hands, the hands of Joan 
 who had gazed at Gogoomy's head, with pale 
 cheeks sprayed with angry flame. The hands 
 were now a woman's hands, and Sheldon 
 grinned to himself as his fancy suggested that 
 some night he must lie outside the mosquito- 
 netting in order to have Joan apply soothing 
 fomentations in the morning. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE HEAD-HUNTERS 
 
 THE morning's action had been settled the 
 night before. Tudor was to stay behind 
 in his banyan refuge and gather strength 
 while the expedition proceeded. On the far 
 chance that they might rescue even one solitary 
 survivor of Tudor's party, Joan was fixed in 
 her determination to push on ; and neither 
 Sheldon nor Tudor could persuade her to remain 
 quietly at the banyan tree while Sheldon went 
 on and searched. With Tudor, Adamu Adam 
 and Arahu were to stop as guards, the latter 
 Tahitian being selected to remain because of a 
 bad foot which had been brought about by 
 stepping on one of the thorns concealed by the 
 bushmen. It was evidently a slow poison, and 
 not too strong, that the bushmen used, for the 
 wounded Poonga-Poonga man was still alive, 
 and though his swollen shoulder was enormous, 
 
 348 
 
ADVENTURE 349 
 
 the inflammation had already begun to go down. 
 He, too, remained with Tudor. 
 
 Binu Charley led the way, by proxy, how- 
 ever, for, by means of the poisoned spear, he 
 drove the captive bushman ahead. The run- 
 way still ran through the dank and rotten 
 jungle, and they knew no villages would be 
 encountered till rising ground was gained. They 
 plodded on, panting and sweating in the humid, 
 stagnant air. They were immersed in a sea of 
 wanton, prodigal vegetation. All about them 
 the huge-rooted trees blocked their footing, 
 while coiled and knotted climbers, of the girth 
 of a man's arm, were thrown from lofty branch 
 to lofty branch or hung in tangled masses like 
 so many monstrous snares. Lush-stalked plants, 
 larger-leaved than the body of a man, exuded 
 a sweaty moisture from all their surfaces. 
 Here and there, banyan trees, like rocky islands, 
 shouldered aside the streaming riot of vegeta- 
 tion, between their crowded columns showing 
 portals and passages wherein all daylight was 
 lost and only midnight gloom remained. Tree- 
 ferns and mosses and a myriad other parasitic 
 
3SO ADVENTURE 
 
 forms jostled with gay-colored fungoid growths 
 for room to live, and the very atmosphere itself 
 seemed to afford clinging space to airy fairy 
 creepers, light and delicate as gem-dust, tremu- 
 lous with microscopic blooms. Pale-golden and 
 vermilion orchids flaunted their unhealthy 
 blossoms in the golden, dripping sunshine that 
 filtered through the matted roof. It was the 
 mysterious, evil forest, a charnel house of 
 silence, wherein naught moved save strange 
 tiny birds — the strangeness of them making 
 the mystery more profound, for they flitted on 
 noiseless wings, emitting neither song nor chirp, 
 and they were mottled with morbid colors, 
 having all the seeming of orchids, flying blossoms 
 of sickness and decay. 
 
 He was caught by surprise, fifteen feet in the 
 air above the path, in the forks of a many- 
 branched tree. All saw him as he dropped like a 
 shadow, naked as on his natal morn, landing 
 springily on his bent knees and like a shadow 
 leaping along the runway. It was hard for 
 them to realize that it was a man, for he seemed 
 a weird jungle sprite, a goblin of the forest. 
 
ADVENTURE 351 . 
 
 Only Binu Charley was not perturbed. He 
 flung his poisoned spear, over the head of the cap- 
 tive, at the flitting form. It was a mighty 
 cast, well-intended, but the shadow, leaping, 
 received the spear harmlessly between the legs, 
 and, tripping upon it, was flung sprawling. Be- 
 fore he could get away, Binu Charley was upon 
 him, clutching him by his snow-white hair. He 
 was only a young man, and a dandy at that, his 
 face blackened with charcoal, his hair whitened 
 with wood-ashes, with the freshly severed tail of a 
 wild pig thrust through his perforated nose and 
 two more thrust through his ears. His only 
 other ornament was a necklace of human finger- 
 bones. At sight of their other prisoner he chat- 
 tered in a high querulous falsetto, with puckered' 
 brows and troubled, wild-animal eyes. He was 
 disposed of along the middle of the line, one of the 
 Poonga-Poonga men leading him at the end of a 
 length of bark rope. 
 
 The trail began to rise out of the jungle, dip- 
 ping at times into festering hollows of unwhole- 
 some vegetation but rising more and more over 
 swelling, unseen hill-slopes or climbing steep hog- 
 
352 ADVENTURE 
 
 backs and rocky hummocks where the forest 
 thinned and blue patches of sky appeared over- 
 head. 
 
 "Close up he stop," Binu Charley warned 
 them in a whisper. 
 
 Even as he spoke, from high overhead came the 
 deep resonant boom of a village drum. But the 
 beat was slow, there was no panic in the sound. 
 They were directly beneath the village, and they 
 could hear the crowing of roosters, two women's 
 voices raised in brief dispute, and, once, the cry- 
 ing of a child. The runway now became a 
 deeply worn path, rising so steeply that several 
 times the party paused for breath. The path 
 never widened, and in places the feet and the 
 rains of generations had scoured it till it was 
 sunken twenty feet beneath the surface. 
 
 "One man with a rifle could hold it against a 
 thousand," Sheldon whispered to Joan. "And 
 twenty men could hold it with spears and ar- 
 rows." 
 
 They came out on the village, situated on a 
 small, upland plateau, grass-covered and with 
 only occasional trees. There was a wild chorus 
 
ADVENTURE 353 
 
 of warning cries from the women, who scurried 
 out of the grass houses and like frightened quail 
 dived over the opposite edge of the clearing, 
 gathering up their babies and children as they 
 ran. At the same time spears and arrows 
 began to fall among the invaders. At Sheldon's 
 command, the Tahitians and Poonga-Poonga 
 men got into action with their rifles. The spears 
 and arrows ceased, the last bushmen disappeared, 
 and the fight was over almost as soon as it had 
 begun. On their own side no one had been 
 hurt, while half a dozen bushmen had been 
 killed. These alone remained, the wounded 
 having been carried off. The Tahitians and 
 Poonga-Poonga men had warmed up and were 
 for pursuit, but this Sheldon would not permit. 
 To his pleased surprise, Joan backed him up in 
 the decision ; for, glancing at her once, during the 
 firing, he had seen her white face, like a glittering 
 sword in its fighting intensity, the nostrils di- 
 lated, the eyes bright and steady and shining. 
 
 "Poor brutes," she said. "They act only 
 according to their natures. To eat their kind 
 and take heads is good morality for them." 
 
 2A 
 
354 ADVENTURE 
 
 " But they should be taught not to take white 
 men's heads/' Sheldon argued. 
 
 She nodded approval, and said, "If we find 
 one head, we'll burn the village. Hey, you, 
 Charley ! What fella place head he stop ?" 
 
 "S'pose he stop along devil-devil house," 
 was the answer. "That big fella house, he 
 devil-devil." 
 
 It was the largest house in the village, ambi- 
 tiously ornamented with fancy-plaited mats and 
 king-posts carved into obscene and monstrous 
 forms half-human and half-animal. Into it they 
 went, in the obscure light stumbling across the 
 sleeping-logs of the village bachelors and knock- 
 ing their heads against strings of weird votive 
 offerings, dried and shrivelled, that hung from the 
 roof-beams. On either side were rude gods, some 
 grotesquely carved, others no more than shapeless 
 logs swathed in rotten and indescribably filthy 
 matting. The air was mouldy and heavy with 
 decay, while strings of fish-tails and of half- 
 cleaned dog and crocodile skulls did not add to 
 the wholesomeness oithe place. 
 
 In the centre, crouched before a slow smoking 
 
ADVENTURE 355 
 
 fire, in the littered ashes of a thousand fires, 
 was an old man who blinked apathetically at the 
 invaders. He was extremely old — so old that 
 his withered skin hung about him in loose folds 
 and did not look like skin. His hands were bony 
 claws, his emaciated face a sheer death's-head. 
 His task, it seemed, was to tend the fire, and 
 while he blinked at them he added to it a hand- 
 ful of dead and mouldy wood. And hung in the 
 smoke they found the object of their search. 
 Joan turned and stumbled out hastily, deathly 
 sick, reeling into the sunshine and clutching at the 
 air for support. 
 
 "See if all are there," she called back faintly, 
 and tottered aimlessly on for a few steps, breath- 
 ing the air in great draughts and trying to forget 
 the sight she had seen. 
 
 • Upon Sheldon fell the unpleasant task of tally- 
 ing the heads. They were all there, nine of them, 
 white men's heads, the faces of which he had been 
 familiar with when their owners had camped in 
 Berande compound and set up the poling-boats. 
 Binu Charley, hugely interested, lent a hand, 
 turning the heads around for identification. 
 
3S6 ADVENTURE 
 
 noting the hatchet-strokes, and remarking the 
 distorted expressions. The Poonga-Poonga men 
 gloated as usual, and as usual the Tahitians were 
 shocked and angry, several of them cursing and 
 muttering in undertones. So angry was Mata- 
 puu, that he strode suddenly over to the fire- 
 tender and kicked him in the ribs, whereupon the 
 old savage emitted an appalling squeal, piglike 
 in its wild-animal fear, and fell face downward in 
 the ashes and lay quivering in momentary ex- 
 pectation of death. 
 
 Other heads, thoroughly sun-dried and smoke- 
 cured, were found in abundance, but, with two 
 exceptions, they were the heads of blacks. So 
 this was the manner of hunting that went on in 
 the dark and evil forest, Sheldon thought, as he 
 regarded them. The atmosphere of the place 
 was sickening, yet he could not forbear to pause 
 before one of Binu Charley's finds. 
 
 "Me savvee black Mary, me savvee white 
 Mary," quoth Binu Charley. "Me no savvee 
 that fella Mary. What name belong him ?" 
 
 Sheldon looked. Ancient and withered, black- 
 ened by many years of the smoke of the devil- 
 
ADVENTURE 357 
 
 devil house, nevertheless the shrunken, mummy- 
 like face was unmistakably Chinese. How it 
 had come there was the mystery. It was a wo- 
 man's head, and he had never heard of a Chinese 
 woman in the history of the Solomons. From 
 the ears hung two-inch long ear-rings, and at 
 Sheldon's direction, the Binu man rubbed away 
 the accretions of smoke and dirt and from under 
 his fingers appeared the polished green of jade, 
 the sheen of pearl, and the warm red of Oriental 
 gold. The other head, equally ancient, was a 
 white man's, as the heavy blond mustache, 
 twisted and askew on the shrivelled upper lip, 
 gave sufficient advertisement ; and Shelddn 
 wondered what forgotten heche-der-mer fisherman 
 or sandalwood trader had gone to furnish that 
 ghastly trophy. 
 
 Telling Binu Charley to remove the ear-rings, 
 and directing the Poonga-Poonga men to carry 
 out the old fire-tender, Sheldon cleared the devil- 
 devil house and set fire to it. Soon every house 
 was blazing merrily, while the ancient fire- 
 tender sat upright in the sunshine blinking at the 
 destruction of his village. From the heights 
 
3S8 ADVENTURE 
 
 above, where were evidently other villages, 
 came the booming of drums and a wild blowing 
 of war-conches ; but Sheldon had dared all he 
 cared to with his small following. Besides, 
 his mission was accomplished. Every member 
 of Tudor's expedition was accounted for; and 
 it was a long, dark way out of the head-hunters' 
 country. Releasing their two prisoners, who 
 leaped away like startled deer, they plunged 
 down the steep path into the steaming jungle. 
 
 Joan, still shocked by what she had seen, 
 walked on in front of Sheldon, subdued and 
 silent. At the end of half an hour she turned to 
 him with a wan smile and said : 
 
 "I don't think I care to visit the head-hunters 
 any more. It's adventure, I know ; but there is 
 such a thing as having too much of a good thing. 
 Riding around the plantation will henceforth be 
 good enough for me, or perhaps salving another 
 Martha; but the bushmen of Guadalcanar need 
 never worry for fear that I shall visit them 
 again. I shall have nightmares for months to 
 come, I know I shall. Ugh ! — thehorrid beasts !" 
 
 That night found them back in camp with 
 
ADVENTURE 359 
 
 Tudor, who, while improved, would still have 
 to be carried down on a stretcher. The swelling 
 of the Poonga-Poonga man's shoulder was going 
 down slowly, but Arahu still limped on his thorn- 
 poisoned foot. 
 
 Two days later they rejoined the boats at 
 Carli ; and at high noon of the third day, travel- 
 ling with the current and shooting the rapids, 
 the expedition arrived at Berande. Joan, with 
 a sigh, unbuckled her revolver-belt and hung it on 
 the nail in the living-room, while Sheldon, who 
 had been lurking about for the sheer joy of seeing 
 her perform that particular home-coming act, 
 sighed, too, with satisfaction. But the home- 
 coming was not all joy to him, for Joan set about 
 nursing Tudor, and spent much time on the ve- 
 randa when he lay in the hammock under the 
 mosquito-netting. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 BURNING DAYLIGHT 
 
 THE ten days of Tudor's convalescence 
 that followed were peaceful days on 
 Berande. The work of the plantation 
 went on like clockwork. With the crushing of 
 the premature outbreak of Gogoomy and his 
 following, all insubordination seemed to have 
 vanished. Twenty more of the old-time boys, 
 their term of service up, were carried away by the 
 Martha, and the fresh stock of labor, treated 
 fairly, was proving of excellent quality. As 
 Sheldon rode about the plantation, acknowledg- 
 ing to himself the comfort and convenience of a 
 horse and wondering why he had not thought of 
 getting one himself, he pondered the various 
 improvements for which Joan was responsible — 
 the splendid Poonga-Poonga recruits ; the fruits 
 and vegetables ; the Martha herself, snatched 
 from the sea for a song and earning money hand 
 
 360 
 
ADVENTURE 361 
 
 over fist despite old Kinross' slow and safe 
 method of running her; and Berande, once 
 more financially secure, approaching each day- 
 nearer the dividend-paying time and growing 
 each day as the black toilers cleared the bush, 
 cut the cane-grass, and planted more cocoanut 
 palms. 
 
 In these and a thousand ways Sheldon was 
 made aware of how much he was indebted for 
 material prosperity to Joan — to the slender, 
 level-browed girl with romance shining out of her 
 gray eyes and adventure shouting from the long- 
 barrelled Colt's on her hip, who had landed on 
 the beach that piping gale, along with her stal- 
 wart Tahitian crew, and who had entered his 
 bungalow to hang with boy's hands her revolver- 
 belt and Baden-Powell hat on the nail by the 
 billiard-table. He forgot all the early exaspera- 
 tions, remembering only her charms and sweet- 
 nesses and glorying much in the traits he at first 
 had disliked most — her boyishness and adven- 
 turousness, her delight to swim and risk the 
 sharks, her desire to go recruiting, her love of 
 the sea and ships, her sharp authoritative words 
 
362 ADVENTURE 
 
 when she launched the whale-boat and with fire- 
 stick in one hand and dynamite stick in the other 
 departed with her picturesque crew to shoot 
 fish in the Balesuna, her super-innocent disdain 
 for the commonest conventions, her juvenile 
 joy in argument, her fluttering, wild-bird love of 
 freedom and mad passion for independence. 
 All this he now loved, and he no longer desired to 
 tame and hold her, though the paradox was the 
 winning of her without the taming and the holding. 
 
 There were times when he was dizzy with 
 thought of her and love of her, when he would 
 stop his horse and with closed eyes picture her as 
 he had seen her that first day, in the sternsheets 
 of the whale-boat, dashing madly in to shore and 
 marching belligerently along his veranda to 
 remark that it was pretty hospitality, this letting 
 strangers sink or swim in his front yard. And as 
 he opened his eyes and urged his horse onward, 
 he would ponder for the ten thousandth time 
 how possibly he was ever to hold her when she 
 was so wild and birdlike that she was bound to 
 flutter out and away from under his hand. 
 
 It was patent to Sheldon that Tudor had 
 
ADVENTURE 363 
 
 become interested in Joan. That convalescent 
 visitor practically lived on the veranda, although, 
 while preposterously weak and shaky in the legs, 
 he had for some time insisted on coming in to 
 join them at the table at meals. The first warn- 
 ing Sheldon had of the other's growing interest in 
 the girl was when Tudor eased down and finally 
 ceased pricking him with his habitual sharpness 
 of quip and speech. This cessation of verbal spar- 
 ring was like the breaking off of diplomatic rela- 
 tions between countries at the beginning of war, 
 and, once Sheldon's suspicions were aroused, he 
 was not long in finding other confirmations. 
 Tudor too obviously joyed in Joan's presence, too 
 obviously laid himself out to amuse and fascinate 
 her with his own glorious and adventurous 
 personality. Often, after his morning ride over 
 the plantation, or coming in from the store or 
 from inspection of the copra-drying, Sheldon 
 found the pair of them together on the veranda, 
 Joan listening, intent and excited, and Tudor 
 deep in some recital of personal adventure at the 
 ends of the earth. 
 
 Sheldon noticed, too, the way Tudor looked at 
 
364 ADVENTURE 
 
 her and followed her about with his eyes, and in 
 those eyes he noted a certain hungry look, and 
 on the face a certain wistful expression ; and he 
 wondered if on his own face he carried a similar 
 involuntary advertisement. He was sure of 
 several things : first, that Tudor was not the 
 right man for Joan and could not possibly make 
 her permanently happy ; next, that Joan was too 
 sensible a girl really to fall in love with a man of 
 such superficial stamp ; and, finally, that Tudor 
 would blunder his love-making somehow. And 
 at the same time, with true lover's anxiety, Shel- 
 don feared that the other might somehow fail to 
 blunder, and win the girl with purely fortuitous 
 and successful meretricious show. But of the 
 one thing Sheldon was sure : Tudor had no inti- 
 mate knowledge of her and was unaware of how 
 vital in her was her wildness and love of indepen- 
 dence. That was where he would blunder — 
 in the catching and the holding of her. And 
 then, in spite of all his certitude, Sheldon could 
 not forbear wondering if his theories of Joan 
 might not be wrong, and if Tudor was not going 
 the right way about after all. 
 
ADVENTURE 365 
 
 The situation was very unsatisfactory and 
 perplexing. Sheldon played the difficult part of 
 waiting and looking on, while his rival devoted 
 himself energetically to reaching out and grasp- 
 ing at the fluttering prize. Then, again, Tudor 
 had such an irritating way about him. It had 
 become quite elusive and intangible, now that he 
 had tacitly severed diplomatic relations ; but 
 Sheldon sensed what he deemed a growing antag- 
 onism and promptly magnified it through the 
 jealous lenses of his own lover's eyes. The other 
 was an interloper. He did not belong to Be- 
 rande, and now that he was well and strong again, 
 it was time for him to go. Instead of which, 
 and despite the calling in of the mail steamer 
 bound for Sydney, Tudor had settled himself 
 down comfortably, resumed swimming, went 
 dynamiting fish with Joan, spent hours with her 
 hunting pigeons, trapping crocodiles, and at 
 target practice with rifle and revolver. 
 
 But there were certain traditions of hospitality 
 that prevented Sheldon from breathing a hint 
 that it was time for his guest to take himself off^. 
 And in similar fashion, feeling that it was not 
 
366 ADVENTURE 
 
 playing the game, he fought down the tempta- 
 tion to warn Joan. Had he known anything, 
 not too serious, to Tudor's detriment, he would 
 have been unable to utter it ; but the worst of it 
 was that he knew nothing at all against the man. 
 That was the confounded part of it, and some- 
 times he was so baffled and overwrought by his 
 feelings that he assumed a superjudicial calm and 
 assured himself that his dislike of Tudor was a 
 matter of unsubstantial prejudice and jealousy. 
 
 Outwardly, he maintained a calm and smiling 
 aspect. The work of the plantation went on. 
 The Martha and the Flibberty-Gibbet came and 
 went, as did all the miscellany of coasting craft 
 that dropped in to wait for a breeze and have a 
 gossip, a drink or two, and a game of billiards. 
 Satan kept the compound free of niggers. 
 Boucher came down regularly in his whale-boat 
 to pass Sunday. Twice a day, at breakfast and 
 dinner, Joan and Sheldon and Tudor met ami- 
 cably at table, and the evenings were as amicably 
 spent on the veranda. 
 
 And then it happened. Tudor made his blun- 
 der. Never divining Joan's fluttering wild- 
 
ADVENTURE 367 
 
 ness, her blind hatred of restraint and compul- 
 sion, her abhorrence of mastery by another, and 
 mistaking the warmth and enthusiasm in her 
 eyes (aroused by his latest tale) for something 
 tender and acquiescent, he drew her to him, laid 
 a forcible detaining arm about her waist, and 
 misapprehended her frantic revolt for an exhibi- 
 tion of maidenly reluctance. It occurred on the 
 veranda, after breakfast, and Sheldon, within, 
 pondering a Sydney wholesaler's catalogue and 
 making up his orders for next steamer-day, 
 heard the sharp exclamation of Joan, followed by 
 the equally sharp impact of an open hand against 
 a cheek. Jerking free from the arm that was all 
 distasteful compulsion, Joan had slapped Tudor's 
 face resoundingly and with far more vim and 
 weight than when she had cuffed Gogoomy. 
 
 Sheldon had half started up, then controlled 
 himself and sunk back in his chair, so that by the 
 time Joan entered the door, his composure was re- 
 covered. Her right forearm was clutched tightly 
 in her left hand, while the white cheeks, centred 
 with the spots of flaming red, reminded him of the 
 time he had first seen her angry. 
 
368 ADVENTURE 
 
 "He hurt my arm," she blurted out, in reply 
 to his look of inquiry. 
 
 He smiled involuntarily. It was so like her, 
 so like the boy she was, to come running to com- 
 plain of the physical hurt which had been done 
 her. She was certainly not a woman versed in 
 the ways of man and in the ways of handling 
 man. The resounding slap she had given Tudor 
 seemed still echoing in Sheldon's ears, and as he 
 looked at the girl before him crying out that her 
 arm was hurt, his smile grew broader. 
 
 It was the smile that did it, convicting Joan in 
 her own eyes of the silliness of her cry and send- 
 ing over her face the most amazing blush he had 
 ever seen. Throat, cheeks, and forehead flamed 
 with the rush of the shamed blood. 
 
 "He — he — " she attempted to vindicate her 
 deeper indignation, then whirled abruptly away 
 and passed out the rear door and down the 
 steps. 
 
 Sheldon sat and mused. He was a trifle angry, 
 and the more he dwelt upon the happening, the 
 angrier he grew. If it had been any woman ex- 
 cept Joan, it would have been amusing. But 
 
ADVENTURE 369 
 
 Joan was the last woman in the world to attempt 
 to kiss forcibly. The thing smacked of the 
 backstairs anyway — a sordid little comedy per- 
 haps, but to have tried it on Joan was nothing 
 less than sacrilege. The man should have had 
 better sense. Then, too, Sheldon was personally 
 aggrieved. He had been filched of something 
 that he felt was almost his, and his lover's jeal- 
 ousy was rampant at thought of this forced 
 familiarity. 
 
 It was while in this mood that the screen door 
 banged loudly behind the heels of Tudor, who 
 strode into the room and paused before him. 
 Sheldon was unprepared, though it was very 
 apparent that the other was furious, 
 
 "Well?" Tudor demanded defiantly. 
 
 And on the instant speech rushed to Sheldon's 
 lips. 
 
 "I hope you won't attempt anything like it 
 again, that's all — except that I shall be only 
 too happy any time to extend to you the cour- 
 tesy of my whale-boat. It will land you in Tulagi 
 in a few hours." 
 
 "As if that would settle it," was the retort. 
 
370 ADVENTURE 
 
 "I don't understand," Sheldon said simply. 
 
 "Then it is because you don't wish to under- 
 stand." 
 
 "Still I don't understand," Sheldon said in 
 steady level tones. "All that is clear to me is 
 that you are exaggerating your own blunder into 
 something serious." 
 
 Tudor grinned maliciously and replied : 
 
 "It would seem that you are doing the exag- 
 gerating, inviting me to leave in your whale- 
 boat. It is telling me that Berande is not big 
 enough for the pair of us. Now let me tell you 
 that the Solomon Islands are not big enough for 
 the pair of us. This thing's got to be settled 
 between us, and it may as well be settled right 
 here and now." 
 
 " I can understand your fire-eating manners as 
 being natural to you," Sheldon went on wearily, 
 "but why you should try them on me is what I 
 can't comprehend. You surely don't want to 
 quarrel with me." 
 
 "I certainly do." 
 
 "But what in heaven's name for ?" 
 
 Tudor surveyed him with withering disgust. 
 
ADVENTURE 371 
 
 "You haven't the soul of a louse. I suppose 
 any man could make love to your wife — " 
 
 "But I have no wife," Sheldon interrupted. 
 
 "Then you ought to have. The situation is 
 outrageous. You might at least marry her, 
 as I am honorably willing to do." 
 
 For the first time Sheldon's rising anger boiled 
 over. 
 
 "You — " he began violently, then abruptly 
 caught control of himself and went on sooth- 
 ingly, "you'd better take a drink and think 
 it over. That's my advice to you. Of course, 
 when you do get cool, after talking to me in 
 this fashion, you won't want to stay on any 
 longer, so while you're getting that drink I'll 
 call the boat's crew and launch a boat. You'll 
 be in Tulagi by eight this evening." 
 
 He turned toward the door, as if to put his 
 words into execution, but the other caught him 
 by the shoulder and twirled him around. 
 
 "Look here, Sheldon, I told you the Solomons 
 were too small for the pair of us, and I meant it." 
 
 "Is that an offer to buy Berande, lock, stock, 
 and barrel ?" Sheldon queried. 
 
372 ADVENTURE 
 
 "No it isn't. It's an invitation to fight," 
 
 "But what the devil do you want to fight 
 with me for?" Sheldon's irritation was growing 
 at the other's persistence. "I've no quarrel 
 with you. And what quarrel can you have 
 with me ? I have never interfered with you. 
 You were my guest. Miss Lackland is my 
 partner. If you saw fit to make love to her, and 
 somehow failed to succeed, why should you want 
 to fight with me ? This is the twentieth century, 
 my dear fellow, and duelling went out of fashion 
 before you and I were born." 
 
 "You began the row," Tudor doggedly as- 
 serted. "You gave me to understand that it 
 was time for me to go. You fired me out of 
 youT house, in short. And then you have the 
 cheek to want to know why I am starting the 
 row. It won't do, I tell you. You started it, 
 and I am going to see it through." 
 
 Sheldon smiled tolerantly and proceeded to 
 light a cigarette. But Tudor was not to be 
 turned aside. 
 
 "You started this row," he urged. 
 
 "There isn't any row. It takes two to make 
 
ADVENTURE 373 
 
 a row, and I, for one, refuse to have anything to 
 do with such tomfoolery." 
 
 "You started it, I say, and I'll tell you why 
 you started it." 
 
 "I fancy you've been drinking," Sheldon inter- 
 posed. "It's the only explanation I can find 
 for your unreasonableness." 
 
 "And I'll tell you why you started it. It 
 wasn't silliness on your part to exaggerate this 
 little trifle of love-making into something serious. 
 I was poaching on your preserves, and you 
 wanted to get rid of me. It was all very nice 
 and snug here, you and the girl, until I came 
 along. And now yOu're jealous — that's it, 
 jealousy — and want me out of it. But I won't 
 
 go- 
 
 "Then stay on by all means. I won't quarrel 
 
 with you about it. Make yourself comfortable. 
 
 Stay for a year, if you wish." 
 
 "She's not your wife," Tudor continued, as 
 
 though the other had not spoken. "A fellow 
 
 has the right to make love to her unless she's 
 
 your — well, perhaps it was an error after all, 
 
 due to ignorance, perfectly excusable, on my 
 
374 ADVENTURE 
 
 part. I might have seen it with half an eye if 
 I'd listened to the gossip on the beach. All 
 Guvutu and Tulagi were laughing about it. I 
 was a fool, and I certainly made the mistake 
 of taking the situation on its assumed innocent 
 face-value." 
 
 So angry was Sheldon becoming that the face 
 and form of the other seemed to vibrate and 
 oscillate before his eyes. Yet outwardly Shel- 
 don was calm and apparently weary of the 
 discussion. 
 
 "Please keep her out of the conversation," he 
 said. 
 
 "But why should I ?" was the demand. 
 "The pair of you trapped me into making a fool 
 of myself. How was I to know that everything 
 was not all right ? You and she acted as if 
 everything were on the square. But my eyes 
 are open now. Why, she played the outraged 
 wife to perfection, slapped the transgressor and 
 fled to you. Pretty good proof of what all the 
 beach has been saying. Partners, eh ? — a busi- 
 ness partnership ? Gammon my eye, that's 
 what it is." 
 
ADVENTURE 375 
 
 Then it was that Sheldon struck out, coolly 
 and deliberately, with all the strength of his 
 arm, and Tudor, caught on the jaw, fell side- 
 ways, crumpling as he did so and crushing a 
 chair to kindling wood beneath the weight of his 
 falling body. He pulled himself slowly to his 
 feet, but did not offer to rush. 
 
 "Now will you fight?" Tudor asked grimly. 
 
 Sheldon laughed, and for the first time with 
 true spontaneity. The intrinsic ridiculousness 
 of the situation was too much for his sense of 
 humor. He made as if to repeat the blow, but 
 Tudor, white of face, with arms hanging resist- 
 lessly at his sides, offered no defence. 
 
 "I don't mean a fight with fists," he said 
 slowly. "I mean to a finish, to the death. 
 You're a good shot with revolver and rifle. 
 So am I. That's the way we'll settle it." 
 
 "You have gone clean mad. You are a 
 lunatic." 
 
 "No I'm not," Tudor retorted. "I'm a man 
 in love. And once again I ask you to go outside 
 and settle it, with any weapons you choose." 
 
 Sheldon regarded him for the first time with 
 
376 ADVENTURE 
 
 genuine seriousness, wondering what strange 
 maggots could be gnawingjn his brain to drive 
 him to such unusual conduct. 
 
 "But men don't act this way in real life," 
 Sheldon remarked. 
 
 "You'll find I'm pretty real before you're 
 done with me. I'm going to kill you to-day." 
 
 "Bosh and nonsense, man." This time Shel- 
 don had lost his temper over the superficial 
 aspects of the situation. "Bosh and nonsense, 
 that's all it is. Men don't fight duels in the 
 twentieth century. It's — it's antediluvian, I 
 tell you." 
 
 "Speaking of Joan — " 
 
 "Please keep her name out of it," Sheldon 
 warned him. 
 
 "I will, if you'll fight." 
 
 Sheldon threw up his arms despairingly. 
 
 "Speaking of Joan — " 
 
 "Look out," Sheldon warned again. 
 
 "Oh, go ahead, knock me down. But that 
 won't close my mouth. You can knock me 
 down all day, but as fast as I get to my feet I'll 
 X speak of Joan again. Now will you fight ?" 
 
ADVENTURE 377 
 
 "Listen to me, Tudor," Sheldon began, with 
 an effort at decisiveness. "I am not used to 
 taking from men a tithe of what I've already 
 taken from you." 
 
 "You'll take a lot more before the day's out," 
 was the answer. "I tell you you simply must 
 fight. I'll give you a fair chance to kill me, but 
 I'll kill you before the day's out. This isn't 
 civilization. It's the Solomon Islands, and a 
 pretty primitive proposition for all that. King 
 Edward and law and order are represented by 
 the Commissioner at Tulagi and an occasional 
 visiting gunboat. And two men and one woman 
 is an equally primitive proposition. We'll 
 settle it in the good old primitive way." 
 
 As Sheldon looked at him, the thought came 
 to his mind that after all there might be some- 
 thing in the other's wild adventures over the 
 earth. It required a man of that caliber, a 
 man capable of obtruding a duel into orderly 
 twentieth century life, to find such wild adven- 
 tures. 
 
 "There's only one way to stop me," Tudor 
 went on. "I can't insult you directly, I know. 
 
378 ADVENTURE 
 
 You are too easy-going, or cowardly, or both, 
 for that. But I can narrate for. you the talk of 
 the beach — ah, that grinds you, doesn't it ? 
 I can tell you what the beach has to say about 
 you and this young girl running a plantation 
 under a business partnership ?" 
 
 " Stop ! " Sheldon cried ; for the other was 
 beginning again to vibrate and oscillate before 
 his eyes. "You want a duel. I'll give it to 
 you." Then his common-sense and his dislike 
 for the ridiculous asserted themselves, and he 
 added, "But it is absurd, impossible." 
 
 "Joan and David — partners, eh .? Joan and 
 David — partners," Tudor began to iterate 
 and reiterate in a malicious and scornful chant. 
 
 "For heaven's sake keep quiet, and I'll let 
 you have your way," Sheldon cried. "I never 
 saw a fool so bent on his folly. What kind of a 
 duel shall it be ? There are no seconds. What 
 weapons shall we use ?" 
 
 Immediately Tudor's monkeylike impishness 
 left him and he was once more the cool, self- 
 possessed man of the world. 
 
 " I've often thought that the ideal duel should 
 
ADVENTURE 379 
 
 be somewhat different from the conventional 
 one," he said. "I've fought several of that 
 sort, you know — " 
 
 "French ones," Sheldon interrupted. 
 
 "Call them that. But speaking of this ideal 
 duel, here it is : No seconds, of course, and no 
 onlookers. The two principals alone are neces- 
 sary. They may use any weapons they please, 
 from revolvers and rifles to machine-guns and 
 pompoms. They start a mile apart, and ad- 
 vance on each other, taking advantage of cover, 
 retreating, circling, feinting — anything and 
 everything permissible. In short, the principals 
 shall hunt each other — " 
 
 "Like a couple of wild Indians ?" 
 
 "Precisely!" cried Tudor, delighted. 
 "You've got the idea. And Berande is just the 
 place, and this is just the right time. Miss 
 Lackland will be taking her siesta, and she'll 
 think we are. We've got two hours for it be- 
 fore she wakes. So hurry up and come on. 
 You start out from the Balesuna and I start 
 from the Berande. Those two rivers are the 
 boundaries of the plantation, aren't they ? 
 
38o ADVENTURE 
 
 Very well. The field of the duel will be the 
 plantation. Neither principal must go outside 
 its boundaries. Are you satisfied?" 
 
 "Quite. But have you any objections if I 
 leave some orders ?" 
 
 "Not at all," Tudor acquiesced, the pink of 
 courtesy now that his wish had been granted. 
 
 Sheldon clapped his hands, and the running 
 house-boy hurried away to bring back Adamu 
 Adam and Noa Noah. 
 
 "Listen," Sheldon said to them; "this man 
 and me we have one big fight to-day. Maybe 
 he die. Maybe I die. If he die, all right. If I 
 die, you two look after Missie Lackalanna. 
 You take rifles and you look after her day-time 
 and night-time. If she want to talk with Mr. 
 Tudor, all right. If she not want to talk, you 
 make him keep away. Savvee ?" 
 
 They grunted and nodded. They had had 
 much to do with white men, and had learned 
 never to question the strange ways of the strange 
 breed. If these two saw fit to go out and kill 
 each other, that was their business and not the 
 business of the islanders, who took orders from 
 
ADVENTURE 381 
 
 them. They stepped to the gun-rack, and each 
 picked a rifle. 
 
 "Better all Tahitian man have rifles," sug- 
 gested Adamu Adam. "Maybe big trouble 
 come." 
 
 "All right, you take them," Sheldon answered, 
 busy with issuing the ammunition. 
 
 They went to the door and down the steps, 
 carrying the eight rifles to their quarters. 
 Tudor, with cartridge-belts for rifle and pistol 
 strapped around him, rifle in hand, stood im- 
 patiently waiting. 
 
 "Come on, hurry up, we're burning daylight," 
 he urged, as Sheldon searched after extra clips 
 for his automatic pistol. 
 
 Together they passed down the steps and out 
 of the compound to the beach, where they 
 turned their backs to each other, and each pro- 
 ceeded toward his destination, their rifles in the 
 hollows of their arms, Tudor walking toward 
 the Berande and Sheldon toward the Balesuna. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 MODERN DUELLING 
 
 BARELY had Sheldon reached the Bale- 
 suna, when he heard the faint report of 
 a distant rifle and knew it was the 
 signal of Tudor, giving notice that he had 
 reached the Berande, turned about, and was 
 coming back. Sheldon fired his rifle into the 
 air in answer, and in turn proceeded to advance. 
 He moved as in a dream, absent-mindedly keep- 
 ing to the open beach. The thing was so pre- 
 posterous that he had to struggle to realize it, 
 and he reviewed in his mind the conversation 
 with Tudor, trying to find some clew to the 
 common-sense of what he was doing. He did 
 not want to kill Tudor. Because that man had 
 blundered in his love-making was no reason that 
 he, Sheldon, should take his life. Then what 
 was it all about ? True, the fellow had insulted 
 Joan by his subsequent remarks and been 
 
 382 
 
ADVENTURE 383 
 
 knocked down for it, but because he had knocked 
 him down was no reason that he should now try- 
 to kill him. 
 
 In this fashion, he covered a quarter of the dis- 
 tance between the two rivers, when it dawned 
 upon him that Tudor was not on the beach 
 at all. Of course not. He was advancing, 
 according to the terms of the agreement, in the 
 shelter of the cocoanut trees. Sheldon promptly 
 swerved to the left to seek similar shelter, when 
 the faint crack of a rifle came to his ears, and 
 almost immediately the bullet, striking the 
 hard sand a hundred feet beyond him, ricochetted 
 and whined onward in a second flight, convinc- 
 ing him that preposterous and unreal as it was, 
 it was, nevertheless, sober fact. It had been 
 intended for him. Yet even then it was hard 
 to believe. He glanced over the familiar land- 
 scape and at the sea, dimpling in the light but 
 steady breeze. From the direction of Tulagi he 
 could see the white sails of a schooner laying a 
 tack across toward Berande. Down the beach 
 a horse was grazing, and he idly wondered where 
 the others were. The smoke rising from the 
 
384 ADVENTURE 
 
 copra-drying caught his eyes, which roved on 
 6ver the barracks, the tool-houses, the boat- 
 sheds, and the bungalow, and came to rest on 
 Joan's little grass house in the corner of the 
 compound. , 
 
 Keeping now to the shelter of the trees, he 
 went forward another quarter of a mile. If 
 Tudor had advanced with equal speed, they 
 should have come together at that point, and 
 Sheldon concluded that the other was circling. 
 The difficulty was to locate him. The rows of 
 trees, running at right angles, enabled him to see 
 along only one narrow avenue at a time. His 
 enemy might be coming along the next avenue, 
 or the next, to right or left. He might be a hun- 
 dred feet away or half a mile. Sheldon plodded 
 on, and decided that the old stereotyped duel 
 was far simpler and easier than this protracted 
 hide-and-seek affair. He, too, tried circling, 
 in the hope of cutting the other's circle; but, 
 without catching a glimpse of him, he finally 
 emerged upon a fresh clearing where the young 
 trees, waist-high, afforded little shelter and less 
 hiding. Just as he emerged, stepping out a 
 
ADVENTURE 385 
 
 pace, a rifle cracked to his right, and though he 
 did not hear the bullet in passing, the thud of it 
 came to his ears when it struck a palm trunk 
 farther on. 
 
 He sprang back into the protection of the 
 larger trees. Twice he had exposed himself and 
 been fired at, while he had failed to catch a 
 single glimpse of his antagonist. A slow anger 
 began to burn in him. It was deucedly unpleas- 
 ant, he decided, this being peppered at; and 
 nonsensical as it really was, it was none the less 
 deadly serious. There was no avoiding the 
 issue, no firing in the air and getting over with it 
 as in the old-fashioned duel. This mutual man- 
 hunt must keep up until one got the other. 
 And if one neglected a chance to get the other,, 
 that increased the other's chance to get him. 
 There could be no false sentiment about it. 
 Tudor had been a cunning devil when he pro- 
 posed this sort of duel, Sheldon concluded, as he 
 began to work along cautiously in the direction 
 of the last shot. 
 
 When he arrived at the spot, Tudor was 
 gone, and only his footprints remained, pointing 
 
386 ADVENTURE 
 
 out the course he had taken into the depths of 
 the plantation. Once, ten minutes later, he 
 caught a glimpse of Tudor, a hundred yards 
 away, crossing the same avenue as himself but 
 going in the opposite direction. His rifle half 
 leaped to his shoulder, but the other was gone. 
 More in whim than in hope of result, grinning to 
 himself as he did so, Sheldon raised his automatic 
 pistol and in two seconds sent eight shots scat- 
 tering through the trees in the direction in which 
 Tudor had disappeared. Wishing he had a 
 shot-gun, Sheldon dropped to the ground behind 
 a tree, slipped a fresh clip up the hollow butt of 
 the pistol, threw a cartridge into the chamber, 
 shoved the safety catch into place, and reloaded 
 the empty clip. 
 
 It was but a short time after that that Tudor 
 tried the same trick on him, the bullets pattering 
 about him like spiteful rain, thudding into the 
 palm trunks, or glancing off in whining ricochets. 
 The last bullet of all, making a double ricochet 
 from two different trees and losing most of its 
 momentum, struck Sheldon a sharp blow on the 
 forehead and dropped at his feet. He was 
 
ADVENTURE 387 
 
 partly stunned for the moment, but on investi- 
 gation found no greater harm than a nasty lump 
 that soon rose to the size of a pigeon's egg. 
 
 The hunt went on. Once, coming to the edge 
 of the grove near the bungalow, he saw the 
 house-boys and the cook, clustered on the back 
 veranda and peering curiously among the trees, 
 talking and laughing with one another in their 
 queer falsetto voices. Another time he came 
 upon a working gang busy at hoeing weeds. 
 They scarcely noticed him when he came up, 
 though they knew thoroughly well what was 
 going on. It was no affair of theirs that the 
 enigmatical white men should be out trying to 
 kill each other, and whatever interest in the 
 proceedings might be theirs, they were careful 
 to conceal it from Sheldon. He ordered them 
 to continue hoeing weeds in a distant and out- 
 of-the-way corner, and went on with the pur- 
 suit of Tudor. 
 
 Tiring of the endless circling, Sheldon tried 
 once more to advance directly on his foe, but 
 the latter was too crafty, taking advantage of 
 his boldness to fire a couple of shots at him and 
 
388 ADVENTURE 
 
 slipping away on some changed and continually- 
 changing course. For an hour, they dodged 
 and turned and twisted back and forth and 
 around and hunted each other among the orderly 
 palms. They caught fleeting glimpses of each 
 other and chanced flying shots which were 
 without result. On a grassy shelter behind a 
 tree, Sheldon came upon where Tudor had 
 rested and smoked a cigarette. The pressed 
 grass showed where he had sat. To one side 
 lay the cigarette stump and the charred match 
 which had lighted it. In front lay a scattering 
 of bright metallic fragments. Sheldon recog- 
 nized their significance. Tudor was notching 
 his steel-jacketed bullets, or cutting them blunt, 
 so that they would spread on striking — in 
 short, he was making them into the vicious dum- 
 dum prohibited in modern warfare. Sheldon 
 knew now what would happen to him if a bullet 
 struck his body. It would leave a tiny hole 
 where it entered, but the hole where it emerged 
 would be the size of a saucer. 
 
 He decided to give up the pursuit, and lay 
 down in the grass, protected right and left by 
 
ADVENTURE 389 
 
 the row of palms, with, on either hand, the long 
 avenue extending. This he could watch. 
 Tudor would have to come to him or else there 
 would be no termination of the affair. He wiped 
 the sweat from his face and tied the handker- 
 chief around his neck to keep off the stinging 
 gnats that lurked in the grass. Never had he 
 felt so great a disgust for the thing called "adven- 
 ture." Joan had been bad enough, with her 
 Baden-Powell and long-barrelled Colt's; but 
 here was this newcomer, also looking for adven- 
 ture and finding it in no other way than by lug- 
 ging a peace-loving planter into an absurd and 
 preposterous bushwhacking duel. If ever adven- 
 ture was well damned, it was by Sheldon, sweat- 
 ing in the windless grass and fighting gnats, the 
 while he kept close watch up and down the 
 avenue. 
 
 Then Tudor came. Sheldon happened to be 
 looking in his direction at the moment he came 
 into view, peering quickly up and down the 
 avenue before he stepped into the open. Mid- 
 way he stopped, as if debating what course to 
 pursue. He made a splendid mark, facing his 
 
390 ADVENTURE 
 
 concealed enemy at two hundred yards' distance. 
 Sheldon aimed at the centre of his chest, then 
 deliberately shifted the aim to his right shoulder, 
 and, with the thought, "that will put him out of 
 business," pulled the trigger. The bullet, driv- 
 ing with momentum sufficient to perforate a 
 man's body a mile distant, struck Tudor with 
 such force as to pivot him, whirling him half 
 around by the shock of its impact and knocking 
 him down. 
 
 "Hope I haven't killed the beggar," Sheldon 
 muttered aloud, springing to his feet and run- 
 ning forward. 
 
 A hundred feet away, all anxiety on that score 
 was relieved by Tudor, who made shift with his 
 left hand and from his automatic pistol hurled a 
 rain of bullets all around Sheldon. The latter 
 dodged behind a palm trunk, counting the 
 shots, and when the eighth had been fired, he 
 rushed in on the wounded man. He kicked the 
 pistol out of the other's hand and then sat down 
 on him in order to keep him down. 
 
 "Be quiet," he said. "I've got you, so there's 
 no use struggling." 
 
ADVENTURE 391 
 
 Tudor still attempted to struggle and to 
 throw him off. 
 
 "Keep quiet, I tell you," Sheldon commanded. 
 "I'm satisfied with the outcome, and you've got 
 to be. So you might as well give in and call 
 this affair closed." 
 
 Tudor reluctantly relaxed. 
 
 "Rather funny, isn't it, these modern duels ?" 
 Sheldon grinned down at him as he removed his 
 weight. "Not a bit dignified. If you'd strug- 
 gled a moment longer, I'd have rubbed your 
 face in the earth. I've a good mind to do it 
 anyway, just to teach you that duelling has gone 
 out of fashion. Now, let us see to your injuries." 
 
 "You only got me that last," Tudor grunted 
 sullenly, "lying in ambush like — " 
 
 "Like a wild Indian. Precisely. You've 
 caught the idea, old man." Sheldon ceased his 
 mocking and stood up. "You lie there quietly 
 until I send back some of the boys to carry you 
 in. You're not seriously hurt, and it's lucky 
 for you I didn't follow your example. If you 
 had been struck with one of your own bullets, 
 a carriage and pair would have been none too 
 
392 ADVENTURE 
 
 large to drive through the hole it would have 
 made. As it is, you're drilled clean — a nice 
 little perforation. All you need is antiseptic 
 washing and dressing and you'll be around in a 
 month. Now take it easy, arid I'll send a 
 stretcher for you." 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 CAPITULATION 
 
 WHEN Sheldon emerged from among the 
 trees, he found Joan waiting at the 
 compound gate, and he could not fail 
 to see that she was visibly gladdened at the 
 sight of him. 
 
 "I can't tell you how glad I am to see you," 
 was her greeting. "What's become of Tudor ? 
 That last flutter of the automatic wasn't nice 
 to listen to. Was it you or Tudor?" 
 
 "So you know all about it," he answered 
 coolly. "Well, it was Tudor, but he was doing 
 it left-handed. He's down with a hole in his 
 shoulder." He looked at her keenly. "Disap- 
 pointing, isn't it.'"' he drawled. 
 
 "How do you mean ?" 
 
 "Why, that I didn't kill him." 
 
 "But I didn't want him killed just because he 
 kissed me," she cried. 
 
 393 
 
394 ADVENTURE 
 
 "Oh, he did kiss you," Sheldon retorted, in 
 evident surprise. "I thought you said he hurt 
 your arm." 
 
 "One could call it a kiss, though it was only 
 on the end of the nose." She laughed at the 
 recollection. "But I paid him back for that 
 myself. I boxed his face for him. And he 
 did hurt my arm. It's black and blue. Look 
 at it." 
 
 She pulled up the loose sleeve of her blouse, 
 and he saw the bruised imprints of two fingers. 
 
 Just then a gang of blacks came out from 
 among the trees carrying the wounded man on 
 a rough stretcher. 
 
 "Romantic, isn't it ?" Sheldon sneered, follow- 
 ing Joan's startled gaze. "And now I'll have 
 to play surgeon and doctor him up. Funny, 
 this twentieth century duelling. First you drill 
 a hole in a man, and next you set about plugging 
 the hole up." 
 
 They had stepped aside to let the stretcher 
 pass, and Tudor, who had heard the remark, 
 lifted himself up on the elbow of his sound 
 arm and said with a defiant grin : 
 
ADVENTURE 395 
 
 " If you'd got one of mine, you'd have had to 
 plug with a dinner-plate." 
 
 "Oh, you wretch!" Joan cried. "You've 
 been cutting your bullets." 
 
 "It was according to agreement," Tudor 
 answered. " Everything went. We could have 
 used dynamite if we wanted to." 
 
 "He's right," Sheldon assured her, as they 
 swung in behind. "Any weapon was permis- 
 sible. I lay in the grass where he couldn't see 
 me, and bushwhacked him in truly noble 
 fashion. That's what comes of having women 
 on the plantation. And now it's antiseptics 
 and drainage tubes, I suppose. It's a nasty 
 mess, and I'll have to read up on it before I 
 tackle the job." 
 
 "I don't see that it's my fault," she began. 
 "I couldn't lielp it because he kissed me. I 
 never dreamed he would attempt it." 
 
 "We didn't fight for that reason. But there 
 isn't time to explain. If you'll get dressings 
 and bandages ready, I'll look up 'gun-shot 
 wounds' and see what's to be done." 
 
 "Is he bleeding seriously?" she asked. 
 
396 ADVENTURE 
 
 "No; the bullet seems to have missed the 
 important arteries. But that would have been 
 a pickle.", 
 
 "Then there's no need to bother about read-« 
 ing up," Joan said. "And I'm just dying to 
 hear what it was all about. The Apostle is lying 
 becalmed inside the point, and her boats are 
 out towing. She'll be at anchor in five minutes, 
 and Doctor Welshmere is sure to be on board. 
 So all we've got to do is to make Tudor com- 
 fortable. We'd better put him in your room 
 under the mosquito-netting, and send a boat 
 off to tell Dr. Welshmere to bring his instru- 
 ments." 
 
 An hour afterward, Dr. Welshmere left the 
 patient comfortable and attended to, and went 
 down to the beach to go on board, promising 
 to come back to dinner. Joan and Sheldon, 
 standing on the veranda, watched him depart. 
 
 "I'll never have it in for the missionaries 
 again since seeing them here in the Solomons," 
 she said, seating herself in a steamer chair. 
 
 She looked at Sheldon and began to laugh. 
 
 "That's right," he said. "It's the way I 
 
ADVENTURE 397 
 
 feel, playing the fool and trying to murder a 
 guest." 
 
 "But you haven't told me what it was all 
 about." 
 
 "You," he answered shortly. 
 
 "Me ? But you just said it wasn't." 
 
 "Oh, it wasn't the kiss." He walked over 
 to the railing and leaned against it, facing her. 
 "But it was about you all the same, and I may 
 as well tell you. You remember, I warned you 
 long ago what would happen, when you wanted 
 to become a partner in Berande. Well, all the 
 beach is gossiping about it; and Tudor per- 
 sisted in repeating the gossip to me. So you 
 see it won't do for you to stay on here under 
 present conditions. It would be better if you 
 went away." 
 
 "But I don't want to go away," she objected, 
 with rueful countenance. 
 
 "A chaperon, then — " 
 
 "No, nor a chaperon." 
 
 "But you surely don't expect me to go 
 around shooting every slanderer in the Solomons 
 that opens his mouth ?" he demanded gloomily. 
 
398 ADVENTURE 
 
 "No, nor that either," she answered with 
 quick impulsiveness. "I'll tell you what we'll 
 do. We'll get married and put a stop to it all. 
 — There!" 
 
 He looked at her in amazement, and would 
 have believed that she was making fun of him 
 had it not been for the warm blood that sud- 
 denly suffused her cheeks. 
 
 "Do you mean that ?" he asked unsteadily. 
 "Why?". 
 
 "To put a stop to all the nasty gossip of the 
 beach. That's a pretty good reason, isn't it ? " 
 
 The temptation was strong enough and sud- 
 den enough to make him waver, but all the 
 disgust came back to him that was his^ when 
 he lay in the grass, fighting gnats and cursing 
 adventure, and he answered : 
 
 "No; it is worse than no reason at all. I 
 don't care to marry you as a matter of ex- 
 pediency — " 
 
 "You are the most ridiculous creature !" she 
 broke in, with a flash of her old-time anger. 
 "You talk love and marriage to me, very much 
 against my wish, and go mooning around over 
 
ADVENTURE 399 
 
 the plantation week after week because you 
 can't have me, and look at me when you think 
 I'm not noticing and when all the time I'm 
 wondering when you had your last square meal 
 because of the hungry look in your eyes, and 
 make eyes at my revolver-belt hanging on a 
 nail, and fight duels about me, and all the rest 
 — and — and now, when I say I'll marry you, 
 you do yourself the honor of refusing me." 
 
 "You can't make me any more ridiculous 
 than I feel," he answered, rubbing the lump on 
 his forehead reflectively. "And if this is the 
 apcepted romantic programme — a duel over a 
 girl and the girl rushing into the arms of the 
 winner — why, I shall not make a bigger ass of 
 myself by going in for it." 
 
 "I thought you'd jump at it," she confessed, 
 with a naivete he could not but question, for 
 he thought he saw a roguish gleam in her eyes. 
 
 "My conception of love must differ from 
 yours then," he said. "I should want a woman 
 to marry me for love of me, and not out of 
 romantic admiration because I was lucky 
 enough to drill a hole in a man's shoulder with 
 
400 ADVENTURE 
 
 smokeless powder. I tell you I am disgusted 
 with this adventure tomfoolery and rot. I 
 don't like it. Tudor is a sample of the advent- 
 ure-kind — picking a quarrel with me and be- 
 having like a monkey, insisting on fighting with 
 me — 'to the death,' he said. It was like a 
 penny dreadful." 
 
 She was biting her lip, and though her eyes 
 were cool and level-looking as ever, the tell- 
 tale angry red was in her cheeks. 
 
 "Of course, if you don't want to marry me — " 
 
 "But I do," he hastily interposed. 
 
 "Oh, you do—" 
 
 "But don't you see, little girl, I want you to 
 love me," he hurried on. "Otherwise, it would 
 be only half a marriage. I don't want you to 
 marry me simply because by so doing a stop is 
 put to the beach gossip, nor do I want you to 
 marry me out of some foolish romantic notion. 
 I shouldn't want you — that way." 
 
 "Oh, in that case," she said with assumed 
 deliberateness, and he could have sworn to the 
 roguish gleam, " in that case, since you are will- 
 ing to consider my offer, let me make a few 
 
ADVENTURE 401 
 
 remarks. In the first place you needn't sneer 
 at adventure when you are living it yourself, 
 and you were certainly living it when I found 
 you first, down with fever on a lonely planta- 
 tion with a couple of hundred wild cannibals 
 thirsting for your life. Then I came along — " 
 
 "And what with your arriving in a gale," he 
 broke in, "fresh from the wreck of your schooner, 
 landing on the beach in a whale-boat full of 
 picturesque Tahitian sailors, and marching into 
 the bungalow with a Baden-Powell on your 
 head, sea-boots on your feet, ^nd a whacking 
 big Colt's dangling on your hip — why, I am 
 only too ready to admit that you were the 
 quintescence of adventure." 
 
 "Very good," she cried exultantly. "It's 
 mere simple arithmetic — the adding of your 
 adventure and my adventure together. So 
 that's settled, and you needn't jeer at adventure 
 any more. Next, I don't think there was any- 
 thing romantic in Tudor's attempting to kiss 
 me, nor anything like adventure in this absurd 
 duel. But I do think, now, that it was ro- 
 mantic for you to fall in love with me. And 
 
402 ADVENTURE 
 
 finally, and it is adding romance to romance 
 I think — I think I do love you, Dave — oh, 
 Dave!" 
 
 The last was a sighing dove-cry as he caught 
 her up in his arms and pressed her to him. 
 
 "But I don't love you because you played 
 the fool to-day," she whispered on his shoulder. 
 "White men shouldn't go around killing each 
 other." 
 
 "Then why do you love me ?" he questioned, 
 enthralled after the manner of all lovers in the 
 everlasting query that forever has remained 
 unanswered. 
 
 " I don't know — just because I do, I guess. 
 And that's all the satisfaction you gave me 
 when we had that man-talk. But I have been 
 loving you for weeks — during all the time you 
 have been so deliciously and unobtrusively 
 jealous of, Tudor." 
 
 "Yes, yes, go on," he urged breathlessly, 
 when she paused. 
 
 "I wondered when you'd break out, and 
 because you didn't, I loved you all the more. 
 You were like Dad, and Von. You could hold 
 
ADVENTURE 403 
 
 yourself in check. You didn't make a fool of 
 yourself." 
 
 "Not until to-day," he suggested. 
 
 "Yes, and I loved you for that, too. It 
 was about time. I began to think you were 
 never going to bring up the subject again. 
 And now that I have offered myself you haven't 
 even accepted." 
 
 With both hands on her shoulders he held 
 her at arm's length from him and looked long 
 into her eyes, no longer cool, but seemingly 
 pervaded with a golden flush. The lids drooped 
 and yet bravely did not droop as she returned 
 his gaze. Then he fondly and solemnly drew 
 her to him. 
 
 "And how about that hearth and saddle of 
 your own ?" he asked, a moment later. 
 
 "I well-nigh won to them., The grass house 
 is my hearth, and the Martha my saddle, and 
 — and look at all the trees I've planted, to 
 say nothing of the sweet corn. And it's all 
 your fault anyway. I might never have loved 
 you if you hadn't put the idea into my head." 
 
 "There's the Nongasela coming in around the 
 
404 ADVENTURE 
 
 point with her boats out," Sheldon remarked 
 irrelevantly. "And the Commissioner is on 
 board. He's going down to San Cristoval to 
 investigate that missionary killing. We're in 
 luck, I must say." 
 
 "I don't see where the luck comes in," she 
 said dolefully. "We ought to have this even- 
 ing all to ourselves just to talk things over. 
 I've a thousand questions to ask you. 
 
 "And it wouldn't have been a man-talk 
 either," she added. 
 
 "But my plan is better than that." He 
 debated with himself a moment. "You see, 
 the Commissioner is the one official in the 
 islands who can give us a license. And — 
 there's the luck of it — Dr. Welshmere is here 
 to perform the ceremony. We'll get married 
 this evening." 
 
 Joan recoiled from him in panic, tearing her- 
 self from his arms and going backward several 
 steps. He could see that she was really 
 frightened. 
 
 "I — I thought — " she stammered. 
 
 Then, slowly, the change came over her, and 
 
ADVENTURE 405 
 
 the blood flooded into her face in the same 
 amazing blush he had seen once before that 
 day. Her cool, level-looking eyes were no 
 longer level-looking nor cool, but warmly droop- 
 ing and just unable to meet his, as she came 
 toward him and nestled in the circle of his 
 arms, saying softly, almost in a whisper : 
 "I am ready, Dave." 
 
npHE following pages contain advertisements 
 of a few of the Macmillan novels. 
 
Mr. jack LONDON'S NOVELS, Etc. 
 
 Each, in decorated cloth binding, $i.^O 
 
 Burning Daylight cioth,i2mo 
 
 "Sy all odds the most interesting, as well as the most wholesome, 
 long story Mr. London has written." — Nation. 
 
 The Call of the Wild illustrated in cohrs 
 
 "A big story in sober English, and with thorough art in the con- 
 struction; a wonderfully perfect bit of work ; a book that will be 
 heard of long. The dog's adventures are as exciting as any man's 
 exploits could be, and Mr. London's workmanship is wholly satisfy- 
 ing." — TAe New York Sun. 
 
 The Sea-Wolf illustrated in colors 
 
 " Jack London's ' The Sea!- Wolf ' is marvellously truthful. . . . Read- 
 ing it through at a sitting, we have found it poignantly interesting ; 
 ... a superb piece of craftsmanship." — The New York Triiune. 
 
 White Fang illustrated in colors 
 
 "A thrilling story of adventure . . . stirring indeed . . . and it 
 touches a chord of tenderness that is all too rare in Mr. London's 
 work." — Record'Herald, Chicago. 
 
 Before Adam illustrated in colors 
 
 "The story moves with a wonderful sequence of interesting and 
 wholly credible events. . . . From an artistic standpoint the book is 
 an undoubted success. And it is no less a success from the stand- 
 point of the reader who seeks to be entertained." — The Plain Dealer, 
 Qeveland. 
 
 Martin Eden cioth,izmo 
 
 " The stirring story of a man who rises by force of sheer ability and 
 perseverance from the humblest beginning to a position of fame and 
 influence. The elemental strength, the vigor and determination, of 
 Martin Eden make him the most interesting character that Mr. 
 London has ever created." — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 64-66 Fifth Avenue, New York 
 
Jack London's Short Stories 
 
 Each, cloth, illustrated, i2mo, $iJo 
 
 THE GAME 
 
 A Transcript from Real Life 
 
 " It is told with such a glow of imaginative illusion, with such 
 intense dramatic vigor, with such effective audacity of phrase, 
 that it almost seems as if the author's appeal was to the bodily 
 eye as much as to the inner mentality, and that the events are 
 actually happening before the reader." — The New York 
 Herald. 
 
 CHILDREN OF THE FROST 
 
 "Told with something of that same vigorous and honest 
 manliness and indifference with which Mr. Kipling makes 
 unbegging yet direct and unfailing appeal to the sympathy of 
 his reader." — Richmond Despatch. 
 
 THE FAITH OF MEN 
 
 " Mr. London's art as a story-teller nowhere manifests itself 
 more strongly than in the swift, dramatic close of his stories. 
 There is no hesitancy or uncertainty of touch. From the 
 start the story moves straight to the inevitable conclusion." 
 
 — Courier Journal. 
 
 MOON FACE 
 
 " Each of the stories is unique in its individual way, weird and 
 uncanny, and told in Mr. London's vigorous, compelling style." 
 — Interior. 
 
 TALES OF THE FISH PATROL 
 
 "That they are vividly told, hardly need be said, for Jack 
 London is a realist as well as a writer of thrilling romances." 
 
 — Cleveland Plain Dealer. 
 
 LOVE OF LIFE 
 
 "Jack London is at his best with the short story . . . clear- 
 cut, sharp, incisive, with the tang of the frost in it." — Record- 
 Herald, Chicago. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 64-66 nfth Avenue, New York 
 
Jack London's Social Studies 
 
 REVOLUTION Cloth, jzmo, $1.50 nel 
 
 " Here is a field wherein London is entirely at home, and the 
 narrative radiates with picturesque description and vivid char- 
 acterization." — Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 
 
 THE WAR OF THE CLASSES Cloth, izmo, $1.50 nel 
 
 " Mr. London's book is thoroughly interesting, and Mr. London's 
 point of view is, as may be surmised, very different from that of 
 the closet theorist." — Spring jidd Republican. 
 
 PEOPLE OF THE ABYSS Illustrated, cloth, $1.50 net 
 
 " This life has been pictured many times before — complacently 
 and soothingly by Professor Walter A. Wyckoff, luridly by Mr. 
 Stead, scientifically by Mr. Charles Booth. But Mr. London 
 alone has made it real and present to us." — The Independent. 
 
 THE ROAD Illustrated, cloth, izmo, $2.00 net 
 
 As a literal record of life among tramps, of travel from end to 
 end of the country, its significance is great. 
 
 THE KEMPTON-WACE LETTERS 
 By Jack London and Anna Strunsky 
 
 Cloth, izmo, $1.50 
 " They are not exactly love letters, but letters about the nature 
 of love, and what part romantic love plays, and what part it 
 ought to play in our modern life." — Porttand Advertiser. 
 
 THE IRON HEEL 
 
 A Novel Cloth, z2mo, $1.30 
 
 "Power is certainly the keynote of this book. Every word 
 tingles with it. It is a great book, one that deserves to be read 
 and pondered. ... It contains a mighty lesson and a most 
 impressive warning." — Indianapolis News. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 61-66 Tiftli Aveane, Vmr York 
 
Mr. ROBERT HERRICK'S NOVELS 
 
 Cloth, extra, gilt tops, each, $1.30 
 
 A Life for a Life 
 
 "It is fairly safe to prophesy that it will in time take its place among the 
 books that have influenced national thought and sentiment." — Living Age. 
 
 Together 
 
 " An able book, remarkably so, and one which should find a place in the 
 library of any woman who is not a fool." — Editorial in The New York 
 American. 
 
 The Gospel of Freedom 
 
 "A novel that may be truly called the greatest study of social life, in a 
 broad and very much up-to-date sense, that has ever been contributed to 
 American fiction." — Chicago Inter- Ocean. 
 
 The Web of Life 
 
 " It is strong in that it faithfully depicts many phases of American life, 
 and uses them to strengthen a web of fiction, which is most artistically 
 wrought out." — Buffalo Express. 
 
 Jock o* Dreams; or, The Real World 
 
 "The title of the book has a subtle intention. It indicates, and is true 
 to the verities in doing so, the strange dreamlike quality of life to the 
 man who has not yet fought his own battles, or come into conscious pos- 
 session of his will — only such battles bite into the consciousness." — 
 ^ Chicago Tribune. 
 
 The Common Lot 
 
 " It grips the reader tremendously. ... It is the drama of a human 
 soul the reader watches . . . the finest study of human motive that has 
 appeared for many a day." — The World To-day. 
 
 The Memoirs of an American Gttzen 
 
 Illustrated with abottt fifty drawings by F. B. Masters 
 
 " Intensely absorbing as a story, it is also a crisp, vigorous document of 
 startling significance. More than any other writer to-day he is giving us 
 jSif American noveL" — New York Globe. 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Publishers M-66 Fifth Avenue New Tork 
 
IMPORTANT RECENT FICTION 
 
 GERTRUDE ATHERTON'S 
 
 Tower of Ivory Cloth, z2mo,$z. so 
 
 " The ' Tower of Ivory ' provides the closest study of certain phases 
 of English high life at home and abroad that has been given us by 
 any novelist in a great many years. Mrs. Atherton has her readers 
 grappled to her soul by some of the most solid merits of the novelist 
 and these she repays generously." — Chicago Evening Post. 
 
 CLARA E. LAUGHLIN'S 
 
 Just Folks Cloth, izmo,$i. so 
 
 "This work does for readers of fiction the very real service of 
 humanizing the slums." — Philadelphia Press. 
 
 "A most readable story, and one that warms the heart toward 
 others." — Christian Advocate, New York. 
 
 MABEL O. WRIGHT'S 
 
 Princess Flower Hat aoth,zsmo,$i.so 
 
 "The tale is charming, the reading throughout is delightful, and no 
 lover of a garden will pass the book unnoticed." — San Francisco 
 Call. 
 
 E. V. LUCAS' 
 
 Mr. Ingleside Chth,i2mo,$i.3Snet 
 
 " ' Mr. Ingleside ' is a literary man's novel. The story itself is the 
 least of ' Mr. Ingleside '; it is the way it is told, the keen observation 
 of men and things and life in general, the excellent characterization, 
 the drollery and whimsy that bring delight from page to page. . . . 
 It is rich with allusions and memories, ready with knowledge of 
 life, and quickened with a love for quirks and oddities in character 
 wherever they are to be found." — Argus, Albany, N.Y. 
 
 RICHARD WASHBURN CHILD'S 
 
 Jim Hands Cloth, i2mo, $i.zo net 
 
 "This is an excellent story. It treats of sinfple people, of a noble- 
 hearted girl who saw her duty, and of the man she loved. There 
 are scenes of real dramatic power. The interest is sustained. The 
 kind of book that works the heart chords every now and then." — 
 News and Courier, Charleston, S. C. 
 
 "Mr. Child gives us a novel of uncommon interest, but what 
 marks it at once for attention is its purely human quality, its 
 knowledge of the fundamental traits of men and women, its atmos- 
 phere of truth to daily life." — New York Tribune. 
 
IMPORTANT RECENT FICTION — Continued 
 
 JAMES LANE ALLEN'S 
 
 The Doctor's Christmas Eve ciotk, ismo, $i.sa 
 
 " Kentucky in its rural aspects and with its noble men and women 
 forms the scenery for this romance of quaintness and homeliness 
 which lovingly interprets the career of a country doctor who has 
 lost faith in life but not in ideals. Incidentally the author has 
 interpreted the new spirit of American childhood in its relation to 
 the miracles and legends and lore of other lands and older times, 
 which have through the centuries gathered about the great Christ- 
 mas festival of the Nativity." — Neui York Times. 
 
 " What so many have so long hoped Mr. Allen would do he has 
 accomplished in this work, namely, a description of Kentucky and 
 the blue-grass farms as seen by a youngster." — New York American. 
 
 MARY S. WATTS' 
 
 Nathan Burke ciotk, i2mo, fi.jo 
 
 " It is sometimes said that one of the best tests of a good novel, as 
 it is of a well-planned meal, is how you feel at the end. Are you 
 satisHed or do you wish that at some time the performance may be 
 repeated ? When one is through with 'Nathan Burke' one thinks, 
 I 'd like to read it right over again.' " — Columbus Dispatch. 
 
 WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE'S 
 
 A Certain Rich Man Chth,i2mo,$i.so 
 
 " This novel has a message for to-day, and for its brilliant character 
 drawing, and that gossipy desultory style of writing that stamps Mr. 
 White's literary work, will earn a high place in fiction. It is good 
 and clean and provides a vacation from the cares of the hour. It 
 resembles a Chinese play, because it begins with the hero's boy- 
 hood, describes his long, busy life, and ends with his death. Its 
 tone is often religious, never flippant, and one of its best assets is 
 its glowing descriptions of the calm, serene beauties of nature. Its 
 moral is that a magnate never did any real good with money." — 
 Oregonian, Portland, Oregon. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 64-66 Fifth Avenue, XTew York