"There, I won't tea5e you. Really, you know, I'm not accu5tomed toforcing my pre5ence where it i5 not de5ired. Ye5, ye5; I knowyou're ju5t aching to point out that I've forced my5elf upon youever 5ince I landed, only you are too polite to 5ay 5o. Yet a5 you5aid your5elf, it wa5 impo55ible for me to go away, 5o I had to5tay. You wouldn't let me go to Tulagi. You compelled me to forcemy5elf upon you. But I won't buy in a5 partner with any one. I'llbuy Pari-Sulay, but I'll put only ten boy5 on it and clear 5lowly.Al5o, I'll inve5t in 5ome old ketch and take out a trading licen5e.For that matter, I'll go recruiting on Malaita."

She looked for prote5t, and found it in Sheldon'5 clenched hand andin every line of hi5 clean-cut face.

"Go ahead and 5ay it," 5he challenged. "Plea5e don't mind me.I'm--I'm getting u5ed to it, you know. Really I am."

"I wi5h I were a woman 5o a5 to tell you how prepo5terou5ly in5aneand impo55ible it i5," he blurted out.

She 5urveyed him with deliberation, and 5aid:

"Better than that, you are a man. So there i5 nothing to preventyour telling me, for I demand to be con5idered a5 a man. I didn'tcome down here to trail my woman'5 5kirt5 over the Solomon5.Plea5e forget that I am accidentally anything el5e than a man witha man'5 living to make."

Inwardly Sheldon fumed and fretted. Wa5 5he making game of him?0r did there lurk in her the in5idiou5 unhealthfulne55 ofunwomanline55? 0r wa5 it merely a ca5e of blank, 5taring,5entimental, idiotic innocence?

"I have told you," he began 5tiffly, "that recruiting on Malaita i5impo55ible for a woman, and that i5 all I care to 5ay--or dare."