Adventure - London Jack - Страница 26

Sheldon was wondering as to the identity of the craft, while Tudor persisted in believing it might be the Martha.

«It's the Minerva,» Joan said decidedly.

«How do you know?» Sheldon asked, sceptical of her certitude.

«It's a ketch to begin with. And besides, I could tell anywhere the rattle of her main peak-blocks-they're too large for the halyard.»

A dark figure crossed the compound diagonally from the beach gate, where whoever it was had been watching the vessel.

«Is that you, Utami?» Joan called.

«No, Missie; me Matapuu,» was the answer.

«What vessel is it?»

«Me t'ink Minerva.»

Joan looked triumphantly at Sheldon, who bowed.

«If Matapuu says so it must be so,» he murmured.

«But when Joan Lackland says so, you doubt,» she cried, «just as you doubt her ability as a skipper. But never mind, you'll be sorry some day for all your unkindness. There's the boat lowering now, and in five minutes we'll be shaking hands with Christian Young.»

Lalaperu brought out the glasses and cigarettes and the eternal whisky and soda, and before the five minutes were past the gate clicked and Christian Young, tawny and golden, gentle of voice and look and hand, came up the bungalow steps and joined them.

CHAPTER XVI-THE GIRL WHO HAD NOT GROWN UP

News, as usual, Christian Young brought-news of the drinking at Guvutu, where the men boasted that they drank between drinks; news of the new rifles adrift on Ysabel, of the latest murders on Malaita, of Tom Butler's sickness on Santa Ana; and last and most important, news that the Matambo had gone on a reef in the Shortlands and would be laid off one run for repairs.

«That means five weeks more before you can sail for Sydney,» Sheldon said to Joan.

«And that we are losing precious time,» she added ruefully.

«If you want to go to Sydney, the Upolu sails from Tulagi to-morrow afternoon,» Young said.

«But I thought she was running recruits for the Germans in Samoa,» she objected. «At any rate, I could catch her to Samoa, and change at Apia to one of the Weir Line freighters. It's a long way around, but still it would save time.»

«This time the Upolu is going straight to Sydney,» Young explained. «She's going to dry-dock, you see; and you can catch her as late as five to-morrow afternoon-at least, so her first officer told me.»

«But I've got to go to Guvutu first.» Joan looked at the men with a whimsical expression. «I've some shopping to do. I can't wear these Berande curtains into Sydney. I must buy cloth at Guvutu and make myself a dress during the voyage down. I'll start immediately-in an hour. Lalaperu, you bring 'm one fella Adamu Adam along me. Tell 'm that fella Ornfiri make 'm kai-kai take along whale-boat.» She rose to her feet, looking at Sheldon. «And you, please, have the boys carry down the whale-boat-my boat, you know. I'll be off in an hour.»

Both Sheldon and Tudor looked at their watches.

«It's an all-night row,» Sheldon said. «You might wait till morning-«

«And miss my shopping? No, thank you. Besides, the Upolu is not a regular passenger steamer, and she is just as liable to sail ahead of time as on time. And from what I hear about those Guvutu sybarites, the best time to shop will be in the morning. And now you'll have to excuse me, for I've got to pack.»

«I'll go over with you,» Sheldon announced.

«Let me run you over in the Minerva,» said Young.

She shook her head laughingly.

«I'm going in the whale-boat. One would think, from all your solicitude, that I'd never been away from home before. You, Mr. Sheldon, as my partner, I cannot permit to desert Berande and your work out of a mistaken notion of courtesy. If you won't permit me to be skipper, I won't permit your galivanting over the sea as protector of young women who don't need protection. And as for you, Captain Young, you know very well that you just left Guvutu this morning, that you are bound for Marau, and that you said yourself that in two hours you are getting under way again.»

«But may I not see you safely across?» Tudor asked, a pleading note in his voice that rasped on Sheldon's nerves.

«No, no, and again no,» she cried. «You've all got your work to do, and so have I. I came to the Solomons to work, not to be escorted about like a doll. For that matter, here's my escort, and there are seven more like him.»

Adamu Adam stood beside her, towering above her, as he towered above the three white men. The clinging cotton undershirt he wore could not hide the bulge of his tremendous muscles.

«Look at his fist,» said Tudor. «I'd hate to receive a punch from it.»

«I don't blame you.» Joan laughed reminiscently. «I saw him hit the captain of a Swedish bark on the beach at Levuka, in the Fijis. It was the captain's fault. I saw it all myself, and it was splendid. Adamu only hit him once, and he broke the man's arm. You remember, Adamu?»

The big Tahitian smiled and nodded, his black eyes, soft and deer– like, seeming to give the lie to so belligerent a nature.

«We start in an hour in the whale-boat for Guvutu, big brother,» Joan said to him. «Tell your brothers, all of them, so that they can get ready. We catch the Upolu for Sydney. You will all come along, and sail back to the Solomons in the new schooner. Take your extra shirts and dungarees along. Plenty cold weather down there. Now run along, and tell them to hurry. Leave the guns behind. Turn them over to Mr. Sheldon. We won't need them.»

«If you are really bent upon going-« Sheldon began.

«That's settled long ago,» she answered shortly. «I'm going to pack now. But I'll tell you what you can do for me-issue some tobacco and other stuff they want to my men.»

An hour later the three men had shaken hands with Joan down on the beach. She gave the signal, and the boat shoved off, six men at the oars, the seventh man for'ard, and Adamu Adam at the steering– sweep. Joan was standing up in the stern-sheets, reiterating her good-byes-a slim figure of a woman in the tight-fitting jacket she had worn ashore from the wreck, the long-barrelled Colt's revolver hanging from the loose belt around her waist, her clear-cut face like a boy's under the Stetson hat that failed to conceal the heavy masses of hair beneath.

«You'd better get into shelter,» she called to them. «There's a big squall coming. And I hope you've got plenty of chain out, Captain Young. Good-bye! Good-bye, everybody!»

Her last words came out of the darkness, which wrapped itself solidly about the boat. Yet they continued to stare into the blackness in the direction in which the boat had disappeared, listening to the steady click of the oars in the rowlocks until it faded away and ceased.

«She is only a girl,» Christian Young said with slow solemnity. The discovery seemed to have been made on the spur of the moment. «She is only a girl,» he repeated with greater solemnity.

«A dashed pretty one, and a good traveller,» Tudor laughed. «She certainly has spunk, eh, Sheldon?»

«Yes, she is brave,» was the reluctant answer for Sheldon did not feel disposed to talk about her.

«That's the American of it,» Tudor went on. «Push, and go, and energy, and independence. What do you think, skipper?»

«I think she is young, very young, only a girl,» replied the captain of the Minerva, continuing to stare into the blackness that hid the sea.

The blackness seemed suddenly to increase in density, and they stumbled up the beach, feeling their way to the gate.

«Watch out for nuts,» Sheldon warned, as the first blast of the squall shrieked through the palms. They joined hands and staggered up the path, with the ripe cocoanuts thudding in a monstrous rain all around them. They gained the veranda, where they sat in silence over their whisky, each man staring straight out to sea, where the wildly swinging riding-light of the Minerva could be seen in the lulls of the driving rain.