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 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