He was unswervingly kind and gentle to
his boys, and his boys waited till one day he was down with fever. His
head is over on Malaita now. They carried away two whale-boats as well,
filled with the loot of the store. Then there was Captain Mackenzie of
the ketch _Minota_. He believed in kindness. He also contended that
better confidence was established by carrying no weapons. On his second
trip to Malaita, recruiting, he ran into Bina, which is near Langa Langa.
The rifles with which the boat's-crew should have been armed, were locked
up in his cabin. When the whale-boat went ashore after recruits, he
paraded around the deck without even a revolver on him. He was
tomahawked. His head remains in Malaita. It was suicide. So was
Packard's finish suicide."
"I grant that precaution is necessary in dealing with them," Joan agreed;
"but I believe that more satisfactory results can be obtained by treating
them with discreet kindness and gentleness."
"And there I agree with _you_, but you must understand one thing.
Berande, bar none, is by far the worst plantation in the Solomons so far
as the labour is concerned. And how it came to be so proves your point.
The previous owners of Berande were not discreetly kind. They were a
pair of unadulterated brutes.
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