Sheldon was pleased with what Seelee told him. The seventh man of the
last batch of runaways had been caught and was even then at the gate. He
was brought in, heavy-featured and defiant, his arms bound with cocoanut
sennit, the dry blood still on his body from the struggle with his
captors.
"Me savvee you good fella, Seelee," Sheldon said, as the chief gulped
down a quarter-tumbler of raw trade-gin. "Fella boy belong me you catch
short time little bit. This fella boy strong fella too much. I give you
fella one case tobacco--my word, one case tobacco. Then, you good fella
along me, I give you three fathom calico, one fella knife big fella too
much."
The tobacco and trade goods were brought from the storeroom by two house-
boys and turned over to the chief of Balesuna village, who accepted the
additional reward with a non-committal grunt and went away down the path
to his canoes. Under Sheldon's directions the house-boys handcuffed the
prisoner, by hands and feet, around one of the pile supports of the
house. At eleven o'clock, when the labourers came in from the field,
Sheldon had them assembled in the compound before the veranda. Every
able man was there, including those who were helping about the hospital.
Even the women and the several pickaninnies of the plantation were lined
up with the rest, two deep--a horde of naked savages a trifle under two
hundred strong.
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