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Blacks he must have, and, if Joan were fortunate in getting a schooner, three months at least must elapse before the first recruits could be landed on Berande. A week after the Upolu's departure, the Malakula dropped anchor and her skipper came ashore for a game of billiards and to gossip until the land breeze sprang up.
Sheldon was back in the plantation superintending the building of a bridge, when the schooner Malakula ran in close and dropped anchor. Joan watched the taking in of sail and the swinging out of the boat with a sailor's interest, and herself met the two men who came ashore.
At last he picked up the white sails of the schooner and studied them. "No Jessie," he said very quietly. "That's the Malakula." He changed his seat for a steamer reclining-chair. Three hundred feet away the sea broke in a small surf upon the beach. To the left he could see the white line of breakers that marked the bar of the Balesuna River, and, beyond, the rugged outline of Savo Island.
"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.
"'Joan Lackland, says she, with a smile to me; and that's how she bought the Martha." Sheldon experienced a sudden thrill. The Martha! a finer schooner than the Malakula, and, for that matter, the finest in the Solomons. She was just the thing for recruits, and she was right on the spot.
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