cceeds. The _Martha's_ a whacking fine boat, and she'd
take the place of the _Jessie_."

CHAPTER XVII--"YOUR" MISS LACKLAND

The next morning Sheldon came in from the plantation to breakfast, to
find the mission ketch, _Apostle_, at anchor, her crew swimming two mares
and a filly ashore. Sheldon recognized the animals as belonging to the
Resident Commissioner, and he immediately wondered if Joan had bought
them. She was certainly living up to her threat of rattling the dry
bones of the Solomons, and he was prepared for anything.

"Miss Lackland sent them," said Welshmere, the missionary doctor,
stepping ashore and shaking hands with him. "There's also a box of
saddles on board. And this letter from her. And the skipper of the
_Flibberty-Gibbet_."

The next moment, and before he could greet him, Oleson stepped from the
boat and began.

"She's stolen the _Flibberty_, Mr. Sheldon. Run clean away with her.
She's a wild one. She gave me the fever. Brought it on by shock. And
got me drunk, as well--rotten drunk."

Dr. Welshmere laughed heartily.

"Nevertheless, she is not an unmitigated evil, your Miss Lackland. She's
sworn three men off their drink, or, to the same purpose, shut off their
whisky. You know them--Brahms, Curtis, and Fowler. She shipped them on
the _Flibberty-Gibbet_ along with her."

"She's the skipper of the _Flibberty_ now," Oleson broke in. "And she'll
wreck her as sure as God didn't make the Solomons."

Dr. Welshmere tried to look shocked, but laughed again.

"She has quite a way with her," he said. "I tried to back out of
bringing the horses over. Said I couldn't charge freight, that the
_Apostle_ was under a yacht license, that I was going around by Savo and
the upper end of Guadalcanar. But it was no use. 'Bother the charge,'
said she. 'You take the horses like a good man, and when I float the
_Martha_ I'll return the service some day.'"

"And 'bother your orders,' said she to me," Oleson cried. "'I'm your
boss now,' said she, 'and you take your orders from me.' 'Look at that
load of ivory nuts,' I said. 'Bother them,' said she; 'I'm playin' for
something bigger than ivory nuts. We'll dump them overside as soon as we
get under way.'"

Sheldon put his hands to his ears.

"I don't know what has happened, and you are trying to tell me the tale
backwards. Come up to the house and get in the shade and begin at the
beginning."

"What I want to know," Oleson be