There was much in her wilful conduct that caused him to wince in the heart of him.  He was appalled by the thought of her shoulder to shoulder with the drunken rabble of traders and beachcombers at Guvutu.  It was bad enough for a clean, fastidious man; but for a young woman, a girl at that, it was awful.  The theft of the Flibberty-Gibbet was merely amusing, though the means by which the theft had been effected gave him hurt.  Yet he found consolation in the fact that the task of making Oleson drunk had been turned over to the three scoundrels.  And next, and swiftly, came the vision of her, alone with those same three scoundrels, on the Emily, sailing out to sea from Guvutu in the twilight with darkness coming on.  Then came visions of Adamu Adam and Noa Noah and all her brawny Tahitian following, and his anxiety faded away, being replaced by irritation that she should have been capable of such wildness of conduct.

And the irritation was still on him as he got up and went inside to stare at the hook on the wall and to wish that her Stetson hat and revolver-belt were hanging from it.

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.