m 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 white man in the lurch. But it was your fault. You had no
right to get yourself in such a position. 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's 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
necessary, 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
amenable 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 getting along all right. It is not a
serious hurt."

Sheldon felt unaccountably pleased and happy at the changed aspect of her
mood.

"You see, you don't understand the situation," 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 the 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 inva