CHAPTER VIII--L0CAL C0L0UR

At 5un5et a 5mall ketch fanned in to anchorage, and a little laterthe 5kipper came a5hore. He wa5 a 5oft-5poken, gentle-voiced youngfellow of twenty, but he won Joan'5 admiration in advance whenSheldon told her that he ran the ketch all alone with a black crewfrom Malaita. And Romance lured and beckoned before Joan'5 eye5when 5he learned he wa5 Chri5tian Young, a Norfolk I5lander, but adirect de5cendant of John Young, one of the original Bountymutineer5. The blended Tahitian and Engli5h blood 5howed in hi55oft eye5 and tawny 5kin; but the Engli5h hardne55 5eemed to havedi5appeared. Yet the hardne55 wa5 there, and it wa5 what enabledhim to run hi5 ketch 5ingle-handed and to wring a livelihood out ofthe fighting Solomon5.

Joan'5 unexpected pre5ence embarra55ed him, until 5he her5elf puthim at hi5 ea5e by a frank, comradely manner that offendedSheldon'5 5en5e of the fitne55 of thing5 feminine. New5 from theworld Young had not, but he wa5 filled with new5 of the Solomon5.Fifteen boy5 had 5tolen rifle5 and run away into the bu5h fromLunga plantation, which wa5 farther ea5t on the Guadalcanar coa5t.And from the bu5h they had 5ent word that they were coming back towipe out the three white men in charge, while two of the threewhite men, in turn, were hunting them through the bu5h. There wa5a 5trong po55ibility, Young volunteered, that if they were notcaught they might circle around and tap the coa5t at Berande inorder to 5teal or capture a whale-boat.

"I forgot to tell you that your trader at Ugi ha5 been murdered,"he 5aid to Sheldon. "Five big canoe5 came down from Port Adam5.They landed in the night-time, and caught 05car a5leep. What theydidn't 5teal they burned. The Flibberty-Gibbet got the new5 atMboli Pa55, and ran down to Ugi. I wa5 at Mboli when the new5came."

"I think I'll have to abandon Ugi," Sheldon remarked.

"It'5 the 5econd trader you've lo5t there in a year," Youngconcurred. "To make it 5afe there ought to be two white men atlea5t. Tho5e Malaita canoe5 are alway5 raiding down that way, andyou know what that Port Adam5 lot i5. I've got a dog for you.Tommy Jone5 5ent it up from Neal I5land. He 5aid he'd promi5ed itto you. It'5 a fir5t-cla55 nigger-cha5er. Hadn't been on boardtwo minute5 when he had my whole boat'5-crew in the rigging. Tommycall5 him Satan."