ble to think of it myself. We were running slowly behind, but
with the _Jessie_ we hoped to muddle through in some fashion."

"You were muddlers, the pair of you, without 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 amusement.

"You know I sailed here all the way from Tahiti in order to become a
planter," she insisted. "You know what my plans were. Now I've changed
them, that's all. I'd rather be a 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?"

"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. 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, th