He had never read of anything to compare with it. The fictionists, as
usual, were exceeded by fact. The whole thing was too preposterous to be
true. He gnawed his moustache and smoked cigarette after cigarette.
Satan, back from a prowl around the compound, ran up to him and touched
his hand with a cold, damp nose. Sheldon caressed the animal's ears,
then threw himself into a chair and laughed heartily. What would the
Commissioner of the Solomons think? What would his people at home think?
And in the one breath he was glad that the partnership had been effected
and sorry that Joan Lackland had ever come to the Solomons. Then he went
inside and looked at himself in a hand-mirror. He studied the reflection
long and thoughtfully and wonderingly.
CHAPTER XIV--THE MARTHA
They were deep in a game of billiards the next morning, after the eleven
o'clock breakfast, when Viaburi entered and announced,--
"Big fella schooner close up."
Even as he spoke, they heard the rumble of chain through hawse-pipe, and
from the veranda saw a big black-painted schooner, swinging to her just-
caught anchor.
"It's a Yankee," Joan cried. "See that bow! Look at that elliptical
stern! Ah, I thought so--" as the Stars and Stripes fluttered to the
mast-head.
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