nds in a business
way. There, they would be merciless.

She watched Sheldon closely when he arrived, and divined that he was not
particularly delighted to see them. But see them he must, and so
pressing was the need that, after a little perfunctory general
conversation, he led the two men into the stuffy office. Later in the
afternoon, she asked Lalaperu where they had gone.

"My word," quoth Lalaperu; "plenty walk about, plenty look 'm. Look 'm
tree; look 'm ground belong tree; look 'm all fella bridge; look 'm copra-
house; look 'm grass-land; look 'm river; look 'm whale-boat--my word,
plenty big fella look 'm too much."

"What fella man them two fella?" she queried.

"Big fella marster along white man," was the extent of his description.

But Joan decided that they were men of importance in the Solomons, and
that their examination of the plantation and of its accounts was of
sinister significance.

At dinner no word was dropped that gave a hint of their errand. The
conversation was on general topics; but Joan could not help noticing the
troubled, absent expression that occasionally came into Sheldon's eyes.
After coffee, she left them; and at midnight, from across the compound,
she could hear the low murmur of their voices and see glowing the fiery
ends of their cigars. Up early herself, she found they had already
departed on another tramp over the plantation.

"What you think?" she asked Viaburi.

"Sheldon marster he go along finish short time little bit," was the
answer.

"What you think?" she asked Ornfiri.

"Sheldon marster big fella walk about along Sydney. Yes, me t'ink so. He
finish along Berande."

All day the examination of the plantation and the discussion went on; and
all day the skipper of the _Malakula_ sent urgent messages ashore for the
two men to hasten. It was not until sunset that they went down to the
boat, and even then a final talk of nearly an hour took place on the
beach. Sheldon was combating something--that she could plainly see; and
that his two visitors were not giving in she could also plainly see.

"What name?" she asked lightly, when Sheldon sat down to dinner.

He looked at her and smiled, but it was a very wan and wistful smile.

"My word," she went on. "One big fella talk. Sun he go down--talk-talk;
sun he come up--talk-talk; all the time talk-talk. What name that fella
talk-talk?

"Oh, nothing much." He shrugged his shoulders. "They were trying to bu