Chapter 17 - Page 2

shot-gun, ear-ornaments that would shame
the devil, and head-hunting devils that make the devil look like an
angel. I've seen them and got used to them, but this young woman
of yours--"

"Miss Lackland is my partner and part-owner of Berande," Sheldon
interrupted.

"So she said," the irate skipper dashed on. "But she had no papers
to show for it. How was I to know? And then there was that load
of ivory nuts-eight tons of them."

"For heaven's sake begin at the--" Sheldon tried to interrupt.

"And then she's hired them drunken loafers, three of the worst
scoundrels that ever disgraced the Solomons--fifteen quid a month
each--what d'ye think of that? And sailed away with them, too!
Phew!--You might give me a drink. The missionary won't mind. I've
been on his teetotal hooker four days now, and I'm perishing."

Dr. Welshmere nodded in reply to Sheldon's look of inquiry, and
Viaburi was dispatched for the whisky and siphons.

"It is evident, Captain Oleson," Sheldon remarked to that refreshed
mariner, "that Miss Lackland has run away with your boat. Now
please give a plain statement of what occurred."

"Right O; here goes. I'd just come in on the Flibberty. She was
on board before I dropped the hook--in that whale-boat of hers with
her gang of Tahiti heathens--that big Adamu Adam and the rest.
'Don't drop the anchor, Captain Oleson,' she sang out. 'I want you
to get under way for Poonga-Poonga.' I looked to see if she'd been
drinking. What was I to think? I was rounding up at the time,
alongside the shoal--a ticklish place--headsails running down and
losing way, so I says, 'Excuse me, Miss Lackland,' and yells
for'ard, 'Let go!'

"'You might have listened to me and saved yourself trouble,' says
she, climbing over the rail and squinting along for'ard and seeing
the first shackle flip out and stop. 'There's fifteen fathom,'
says she; 'you may as well turn your men to and heave up.'

"And then we had it out. I didn't believe her. I didn't think
you'd take her on as a partner, and I told her as much and wanted
proof. She got high and mighty, and I told her I was old enough to
be her grandfather and that I wouldn't take gammon from a chit like
her. And then I ordered her off the Flibberty. 'Captain Oleson,'
she says, sweet as you please, 'I've a few minutes to spare on you,
and I've got some good whisky over on the Emily. Come on along.
Besides, I want your advice about this wrecking business.
Everybody says you're a crackerjack sailor-man'--that's what she
said, 'crackerjack.' And I went, in her whale-boat, Adamu Adam
steering and looking as solemn as a funeral.

"On the way she told me about the Martha, and how she'd bought her,
and was going to float her.