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 beachcombers 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 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, building 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 rumours
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 Berande for an hour, while landing
mail, supplies, and the trees and 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 Ulava. 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 direction 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 attacked the high bank Joan
had warned him about, that he told off all the gangs
to battle with the river.
