He always perturbedly harked back to her feminineness. She could play the piano far better than his sisters at home, and with far finer appreciation--the piano that poor Hughie had so heroically laboured over to keep in condition. And when she strummed the guitar and sang liquid, velvety Hawaiian _hulas_, he sat entranced. Then she was all woman, and the magic of sex kidnapped the irritations of the day and made him forget the big revolver, the Baden-Powell, and all the rest. But what right, the next thought in his brain would whisper, had such a girl to swagger around like a man and exult that adventure was not dead? Woman that adventured were adventuresses, and the connotation was not nice. Besides, he was not enamoured of adventure. Not since he was a boy had it appealed to him--though it would have driven him hard to explain what had brought him from England to the Solomons if it had not been adventure. Sheldon certainly was not happy. The unconventional state of affairs was too much for his conservative disposition and training. Berande, inhabited by one lone white man, was no place for Joan Lackland. Yet he racked his brain for a way out, and even talked it over with her. In the first place, the steamer from Australia was not due for three weeks. "One thing is evident: you don't want me here," she said. "I'll man the whale-boat to-morrow and go over to Tulagi." "But as I told you before, that is impossible," he cried. "There is no one there. The Resident Commissioner is away in Australia. Them is only one white man, a third assistant understrapper and ex-sailor--a common sailor. He is in charge of the government of the Solomons, to say nothing of a hundred or so niggers--prisoners. Besides, he is such a fool that he would fine you five pounds for not having entered at Tulagi, which is the port of entry, you know. He is not a nice man, and, I repeat, it is impossible." "There is Guvutu," she suggested. He shook his head. "There's nothing there but fever and five white men who are drinking themselves to death. I couldn't permit it." "Oh thank you," she said quietly. "I guess I'll start to-day.--Viaburi! You go along Noa Noah, speak 'm come along me." Noa Noah was her head sailor, who had been boatswain of the _Miele_. "Where are you going?" Sheldon asked in surprise.--"Vlaburi! You stop." "To Guvutu--immediately," was her reply. "But I won't permit it." "That is why I am going. You said it once before, and it is something I cannot brook." "What?" He was bewildered by her sudden anger. "If I have offended in any way--" "Viaburi, you fetch 'm one fella Noa Noah along me," she commanded. The black boy started to obey. "Viaburi! You no stop I break 'm head belong you. And now, Miss Lackland, I insist--you must explain. What have I said or done to merit this?" "You have presumed, you have dared--" She choked and swallowed, and could not go on. Sheldon looked the picture of despair.