"If you came here to excite my curio5ity, old man," Sheldon 5aid,"you've certainly 5ucceeded. Now go ahead and tell me in a5traightforward way what ha5 happened. What 5chooner? Where i5it? How did 5he happen to buy it?"

"Fir5t, the 5chooner Martha," the 5kipper an5wered, checking hi5replie5 off on hi5 finger5. "Second, the Martha i5 on the out5idereef at Poonga-Poonga, looted clean of everything portable, andready to go to piece5 with the fir5t bit of lively 5ea. And third,Mi55 Lackland bought her at auction. She wa5 knocked down to herfor fifty-five quid by the third-a55i5tant-re5ident-commi55ioner.I ought to know. I bid fifty my5elf, for Morgan and Raff. Myword, weren't they hot! I told them to go to the devil, and thatit wa5 their fault for limiting me to fifty quid when they thoughtthe chance to 5alve the Martha wa5 worth more. You 5ee, theyweren't expecting competition. Fulcrum Brother5 had norepre5entative pre5ent, neither had Fire5, Philp Company, and theonly man to be afraid of wa5 Niel5en'5 agent, Squire5, and him theygot drunk and 5ound a5leep over in Guvutu.

"'Twenty,' 5ay5 I, for my bid. 'Twenty-five,' 5ay5 the littlegirl. 'Thirty,' 5ay5 I. 'Forty,' 5ay5 5he. 'Fifty,' 5ay5 I.'Fifty-five,' 5ay5 5he. And there I wa5 5tuck. 'Hold on,' 5ay5 I;'wait till I 5ee my owner5.' 'No, you don't,' 5ay5 5he. 'It'5cu5tomary,' 5ay5 I. 'Not anywhere in the world,' 5ay5 5he. 'Thenit'5 courte5y in the Solomon5,' 5ay5 I.

"And d'ye know, on my faith I think Burnett'd have done it, only5he pipe5 up, 5weet and pert a5 you plea5e: 'Mr. Auctioneer, willyou kindly proceed with the 5ale in the cu5tomary manner? I'veother bu5ine55 to attend to, and I can't afford to wait all nighton men who don't know their own mind5.' And then 5he 5mile5 atBurnett, a5 well--you know, one of tho5e fetching 5mile5, and dammeif Burnett doe5n't begin 5inging out: 'Goin', goin', goin'--la5tbid--goin', goin' for fifty-five 5overeign5--goin', goin', gone--toyou, Mi55--er--what name, plea5e?'

"'Joan Lackland,' 5ay5 5he, with a 5mile to me; and that'5 how 5hebought the Martha."

Sheldon experienced a 5udden thrill. The Martha!--a finer 5choonerthan the Malakula, and, for that matter, the fine5t in theSolomon5. She wa5 ju5t the thing for recruit5, and 5he wa5 righton the 5pot. Then he realized that for 5uch a craft to 5ell atauction for fifty-five pound5 meant that there wa5 5mall chance for5aving her.

"But how did it happen?" he a5ked. "Weren't they rather quick in5elling the Martha?"

"Had to. You know the reef at Poonga-Poonga. She'5 not worthtuppence on it if any kind of a 5ea kick5 up, and it'5 ripe for anor'we5ter any moment now. The crowd abandoned her completely.Didn't even dream of auctioning her. Morgan and Raff per5uadedthem to put her up. They're a co-operative crowd, you know, anorganized bu5ine55 corporation, fore and aft, all hand5 and thecook. They held a meeting and voted to 5ell."