h similar exploration.

"And so," said Von Blix, "for Mr. Tudor's expedition we must have some
black-boys. Can we get them from you?"

"Of course we will pay," Tudor broke in. "You have only to charge what
you consider them worth. You pay them six pounds a year, don't you?"

"In the first place we can't spare them," Sheldon answered. "We are
short of them on the plantation as it is."

"_We_?" Tudor asked quickly. "Then you are a firm or a partnership? I
understood at Guvutu that you were alone, that you had lost your
partner."

Sheldon inclined his head toward Joan, and as he spoke she felt that he
had become a trifle stiff.

"Miss Lackland has become interested in the plantation since then. But
to return to the boys. We can't spare them, and besides, they would be
of little use. You couldn't get them to accompany you beyond Binu, which
is a short day's work with the boats from here. They are Malaita-men,
and they are afraid of being eaten. They would desert you at the first
opportunity. You could get the Binu men to accompany you another day's
journey, through the grass-lands, but at the first roll of the foothills
look for them to turn back. They likewise are disinclined to being
eaten."

"Is it as bad as that?" asked Von Blix.

"The interior of Guadalcanar has never been explored," Sheldon explained.
"The bushmen are as wild men as are to be found anywhere in the world to-
day. I have never seen one. I have never seen a man who has seen one.
They never come down to the coast, though their scouting parties
occasionally eat a coast native who has wandered too far inland. Nobody
knows anything about them. They don't even use tobacco--have never
learned its use. The Austrian expedition--scientists, you know--got part
way in before it was cut to pieces. The monument is up the beach there
several miles. Only one man got back to the coast to tell the tale. And
now you have all I or any other man knows of the inside of Guadalcanar."

"But gold--have you heard of gold?" Tudor asked impatiently. "Do you
know anything about gold?"

Sheldon smiled, while the two visitors hung eagerly upon his words.

"You can go two miles up the Balesuna and wash colours from the gravel.
I've done it often. There is gold undoubtedly back in the mountains."

Tudor and Von Blix looked triumphantly at each other.

"Old Wheatsheaf's yarn was true, then," Tudor said, and Von Blix nodded.
"And if Malaita turns out