Inwardly Sheldon fumed and fretted. Was she making game of him? Or did there lurk in her the insidious unhealthfulness of unwomanliness? Or was it merely a case of blank, staring, sentimental, idiotic innocence?
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 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 phonograph; but before the disc 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 intention of speaking, till he saw her take a rifle from the stand, examine the magazine, and start for the door.
Where are you going? he asked peremptorily.
As between man and woman, she answered, it would be too terribly-er-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. Betweenwhiles 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 plantation.
Poor old Hughie, he muttered aloud, 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 in to 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 collapsed in a steamer-chair. Whisky 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 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 stand it. I'll last longer here, and here I'll 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 broadside 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.
The first drops of rain were driving like hail-stones, the tall cocoanut palms were bending 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 running 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 wonderful. 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.
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 immediate 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 kindest 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 began to call me names.
Hardly that, I am sure.
Well, you said I was horrible, or that I had a horrible way about me, which 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 uncomfortable 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 Flibberty-Gibbet. I didn't know she was so large a cutter; but she's in disgraceful condition. 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.
Her skipper's rotten bad with fever, Sheldon 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.