Adventure

don remarked, the chop at Berande was white man's chop. With her own hands Joan prepared the sick man's food, and between that and the cheer she brought him, he was able,

old as a matter of course, as if he were her father

is like a page out of some romance. Here I come along out of

They serve only three years, and they are fre

ith two hundred recruits on a cannibal island-th

le more than that. Most of my boys are from

cruits? Surely, the boys you

ou if the cha

, on theory, or do you

kno

you think so? Y

ee months ago eleven of them sneaked a whale-boat and ran for Malaita. Nine of them belonged to Malaita. Two were bushmen from San Cristoval. Th

d eagerly. "The

are too valuable for mere eating. They stowed them away in the stern-locker till t

and truly cannibals! And just think, this is the twentieth c

her with mi

matter now?

being eaten by a lot of filthy ni

two hundred of them, and to escape being eaten by them-that, at least, if it isn't romantic,

igger's stomach should be the quin

nd sombre and sordid like the business men at home. I don't know why you're her

r's assistan

nder the sun are you doing

d butter, trying to

't romantic, then nothing is romantic. Think of all the younger sons out over the world, on a myriad of adventures winning t

pardon,"

I have no hearth nor saddle-I haven't anybody or anythin

l admit there is a bit o

uito curtains, her bodyguard of Tahitian sailors stretched out at the far corner of the veranda within call. He ha

hought that I should live it. It was all so unexpected. Two years ago I thought there was nothing left to me but. .

nnibal isle and a cartr

nnibal isle, but the cart

compelled to. Or," noting the glint in her eye

enter the house. He knew sh

d, "here's mine. Wha

ock off your

ed his

the gun," she

and you don't have to

m when they get hot-only I don't know yours." She looked at i

d the block r

said, with the intentio

was emptied of its eight cartridges. Six of them were hits. The block still swayed at the gaff-end, but it was battered out of all usefulness. Sheldon was astonished. It was better t

a woman," he said. "You only missed i

. "The gun worked beautifully, too. Give me another c

a new block. Viaburi! Here you fella,

ight out of eight . . . anyth

on," was his answer. "W

, and his cowboys. He was a shot-Dad,

s to whether it was Von who two years previously had led h

ing? or somewhere out there? You know you haven't told me a thing about y

rther west to find m

me see-

ook he

ifor

farther

else I've forgott

he laughed. "Don't you

nes!" he crie

ck for it already. Not that I haven't been away. I was in New York when the

here in this God-forsaken place?" he asked

" she queried. "As I understand

hat fact is responsib

about him in the Marquesas, and so we

ther-died?"

her eyes grew

hey know what six-times-six is. As for me, I can't remember when I first got on a horse nor when I learned to swim. That came before my A B C's. Dad owned cattle ranches on Hawaii and Maui-big ones, for the islands. Hokuna had two hundred thousand acres alone. It extended in between Mauna Koa and Mauna Loa, and it was there I learned to shoot goats and wild cattle. On Molokai they have big spotted deer. Von was

d they made chums out of us-when our tasks were done. We had to learn to do everything about the house twice as well as the native servants did it-that was so that we should know how to manage some day. And we always made the cocktails, which was t

ean by rope?"

er to see that they did it properly. More than once, at first, one or the other of us had our rifles taken away for a week just because of a tiny speck of rust. We had to know how to build fires in the driving rain, too, out of wet wood, when we camped out

sing. Dad could never get away from the sea, you know. When I was fourteen I was Dad's actual housekeeper, with entire power over the servants, and I am very proud of that period of my life. And when I was sixteen we three girls were all sent up to California to Mills Seminary, which was quite fashionable and sti

'-it will pay ultimately, though. But it contributed to the smash. The Pelaulau Ditch was the finishing blow. And nothing would have happened anyway, if it hadn't been for that big money panic in Wall Street. Dear good Dad! He never let me know. But I read abo

was that?" S

the year of

of gravity. "Sixteen plus five, plus one,

t is not ni

he said, "but the pro

in her gray eyes, and her lips quivered suspiciously for a moment. "I should recommend

ointed at the generously filled bookshelve

never have liked the English anyway. The last one I kne

doesn't mak

uble-there! And now please don't make

rying

, and he decided to return to the sea. He'd always loved it, and I half believe that he was glad things had happened as they did. He was like a boy again, busy with plans a

things, until the plantation should come into bearing. He traded off his yacht for a schooner, the Miélé, and away we went. I took care of him and studied navigation. He was his own skipper. We had a Danish mate, Mr. Ericson, and a mixed crew of Japanese and

land. There was a valley of fifteen thousand acres on Nuka-hiva, half inclosing a perfect anchorage, which he fell in love with and bought for twelve hundred Chili dollars. But the French taxation was outrageous

'll go on to the Bismarck Archipelago. I'll wager the Admiraltys are not yet civilized.' All preparations were made, things packed on board, and a new crew of Marquesan

ere left a

nod

le boy. Of course, I could go back to Von. There's always a home there waiting for me. But why should I go? Besides, there were Dad's plans,

act that I was a woman only simplified matters with them. They robbed me on every pretext, and they lied without pretext or need. Poor Mr. Ericson was corrupted. He joined the robbers, and O.K.'d all their demands even up to a thousand per cent. If they robbed

t, vegetables, fish, meat, and ice came to this house every day, and he paid for none of it. It was part of his graft from the various merchants. And

hing else. But I did do one thing. In the dead of night I went to Ericson's house. I had the same revolver I've got now, and I made him stay in bed while I overhauled things. Nineteen hundred and odd francs was what I carried away with me. He never complain

t us and drove us on the lee shore. We made sail and tried to clew off, when the rotten work of the Tahiti shipwrights became manifest. Our jib-boom and all our head-stays carried away. Our only chance was to turn and run through the passage between Florida and Ysabel. And when we were safely through, in the twilight, where the cha

go back to Von, no

. I shall look about for some land and start a small pl

really remarkable," said Sheldon. "I sho

," Joan co

on Malaita instead of Guadalcanal you'd have been kai-

shudd

anal. I read in the 'Sailing Directions' that the natives were treacherous and h

ot a white

ver on a recruitin

on cried. "It is no

ust the same,

lf-respect

l go some day, and then you may be so