Chapter 18

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.

It was in the good weather that followed, that he left the blacks
at work, one morning, and with a shot-gun across his pommel rode
off after pigeons. Two hours later, one of the house-boys,
breathless and scratched ran him down with the news that the
Martha, the Flibberty-Gibbet, and the Emily were heading in for the
anchorage.

Coming into the compound from the rear, Sheldon could see nothing
until he rode around the corner of the bungalow. Then he saw
everything at once--first, a glimpse at the sea, where the Martha
floated huge alongside the cutter and the ketch which had rescued
her; and, next, the ground in front of the veranda steps, where a
great crowd of fresh-caught cannibals stood at attention. From the
fact that each was attired in a new, snow-white lava-lava, Sheldon
knew that they were recruits. Part way up the steps, one of them