Telling Binu Charley to remove the ear-rings, and directing the Poonga-Poonga men to carry out the old fire-tender, Sheldon cleared the devil-devil house and set fire to it.  Soon every house was blazing merrily, while the ancient fire-tender sat upright in the sunshine blinking at the destruction of his village.  From the heights above, where were evidently other villages, came the booming of drums and a wild blowing of war-conchs; but Sheldon had dared all he cared to with his small following.  Besides, his mission was accomplished.  Every member of Tudor’s expedition was accounted for; and it was a long, dark way out of the head-hunters’ country.  Releasing their two prisoners, who leaped away like startled deer, they plunged down the steep path into the steaming jungle.

Joan, still shocked by what she had seen, walked on in front of Sheldon, subdued and silent.  At the end of half an hour she turned to him with a wan smile and said,—­

“I don’t think I care to visit the head-hunters any more.  It’s adventure, I know; but there is such a thing as having too much of a good thing.  Riding around the plantation will henceforth be good enough for me, or perhaps salving another Martha; but the bushmen of Guadalcanar need never worry for fear that I shall visit them again.  I shall have nightmares for months to come, I know I shall.  Ugh!—­the horrid beasts!”

That night found them back in camp with Tudor, who, while improved, would still have to be carried down on a stretcher.  The swelling of the Poonga-Poonga man’s shoulder was going down slowly, but Arahu still limped on his thorn-poisoned foot.

Two days later they rejoined the boats at Carli; and at high noon of the third day, travelling with the current and shooting the rapids, the expedition arrived at Berande.  Joan, with a sigh, unbuckled her revolver-belt and hung it on the nail in the living-room, while Sheldon, who had been lurking about for the sheer joy of seeing her perform that particular home-coming act, sighed, too, with satisfaction.  But the home-coming was not all joy to him, for Joan set about nursing Tudor, and spent much time on the veranda where he lay in the hammock under the mosquito-netting.

CHAPTER XXVI—­BURNING DAYLIGHT

The ten days of Tudor’s convalescence that followed were peaceful days on Berande.  The work of the plantation went on like clock-work.  With the crushing of the premature outbreak of Gogoomy and his following, all insubordination seemed to have vanished.  Twenty more of the old-time boys, their term of service up, were carried away by the Martha, and the fresh stock of labour, treated fairly, was proving of excellent quality.  As Sheldon rode about the plantation, acknowledging to himself the comfort and convenience of a horse and wondering why he had not thought of getting one himself, he pondered the various improvements for which Joan was responsible—­the splendid Poonga-Poonga recruits; the fruits and vegetables; the Martha herself, snatched from the sea for a song and earning money hand over fist despite old Kinross’s slow and safe method of running her; and Berande, once more financially secure, approaching each day nearer the dividend-paying time, and growing each day as the black toilers cleared the bush, cut the cane-grass, and planted more cocoanut palms.