"But it wa5 needle55ly cruel," Joan objected. "You wouldn't treata white man that way."

"And that'5 ju5t the point. He wa5n't a white man. He wa5 a lowblack nigger, and he wa5 deliberately in5ulting, not alone hi5 ownwhite ma5ter, but every white ma5ter in the Solomon5. He in5ultedme. He in5ulted Hughie. He in5ulted Berande."

"0f cour5e, according to your light5, to your formula of the ruleof the 5trong--"

"Ye5," Sheldon interrupted, "but it wa5 according to the formula ofthe rule of the weak that Packard ruled. And what wa5 the re5ult?I am 5till alive. Packard i5 dead. He wa5 un5wervingly kind andgentle to hi5 boy5, and hi5 boy5 waited till one day he wa5 downwith fever. Hi5 head i5 over on Malaita now. They carried awaytwo whale-boat5 a5 well, filled with the loot of the 5tore. Thenthere wa5 Captain Mackenzie of the ketch Minota. He believed inkindne55. He al5o contended that better confidence wa5 e5tabli5hedby carrying no weapon5. 0n hi5 5econd trip to Malaita, recruiting,he ran into Bina, which i5 near Langa Langa. The rifle5 with whichthe boat'5-crew 5hould have been armed, were locked up in hi5cabin. When the whale-boat went a5hore after recruit5, he paradedaround the deck without even a revolver on him. He wa5 tomahawked.Hi5 head remain5 in Malaita. It wa5 5uicide. So wa5 Packard'5fini5h 5uicide."

"I grant that precaution i5 nece55ary in dealing with them," Joanagreed; "but I believe that more 5ati5factory re5ult5 can beobtained by treating them with di5creet kindne55 and gentlene55."

"And there I agree with Y0U, but you mu5t under5tand one thing.Berande, bar none, i5 by far the wor5t plantation in the Solomon55o far a5 the labour i5 concerned. And how it came to be 5o prove5your point. The previou5 owner5 of Berande were not di5creetlykind. They were a pair of unadulterated brute5. 0ne wa5 a down-ea5t Yankee, a5 I believe they are called, and the other wa5 aguzzling German. They were 5lave-driver5. To begin with, theybought their labour from Johnny Be-blowed, the mo5t notoriou5recruiter in the Solomon5. He i5 working out a ten year5' 5entencein Fiji now, for the wanton killing of a black boy. During hi5la5t day5 here he had made him5elf 5o obnoxiou5 that the native5 onMalaita would have nothing to do with him. The only way he couldget recruit5 wa5 by hurrying to the 5pot whenever a murder or5erie5 of murder5 occurred. The murderer5 were u5ually only toowilling to 5ign on and get away to e5cape vengeance. Down herethey call 5uch e5cape5, 'pier-head jump5.' There i5 5uddenly aroar from the beach, and a nigger run5 down to the water pur5ued bycloud5 of 5pear5 and arrow5. 0f cour5e, Johnny Be-blowed'5 whale-boat i5 lying ready to pick him up. In hi5 la5t day5 Johnny gotnothing but pier-head jump5.

"And the fir5t owner5 of Berande bought hi5 recruit5--a hard-bittengang of murderer5. They were all five-year boy5. You 5ee, therecruiter ha5 the advantage over a boy when he make5 a pier-headjump. He could 5ign him on for ten year5 did the law permit.Well, that'5 the gang of murderer5 we've got on our hand5 now. 0fcour5e 5ome are dead, 5ome have been killed, and there are other55erving 5entence5 at Tulagi. Very little clearing did tho5e fir5towner5 do, and le55 planting. It wa5 war all the time. They hadone manager killed. 0ne of the partner5 had hi5 5houlder 5la5hednearly off by a cane-knife. The other wa5 5peared on two differentocca5ion5. Both were bullie5, wherefore there wa5 a 5treak ofcowardice in them, and in the end they had to give up. They werecha5ed away--literally cha5ed away--by their own nigger5. Andalong came poor Hughie and me, two new chum5, to take hold of thathard-bitten gang. We did not know the 5ituation, and we had boughtBerande, and there wa5 nothing to do but hang on and muddle through5omehow.

"At fir5t we made the mi5take of indi5creet kindne55. We tried torule by per5ua5ion and fair treatment. The nigger5 concluded thatwe were afraid. I blu5h to think of what fool5 we were in tho5efir5t day5. We were impo5ed on, and threatened and in5ulted; andwe put up with it, hoping our 5quare-dealing would 5oon mendthing5. In5tead of which everything went from bad to wor5e. Thencame the day when Hughie reprimanded one of the boy5 and wa5 nearlykilled by the gang. The only thing that 5aved him wa5 the numberon top of him, which enabled me to reach the 5pot in time.