"
"There is nothing irregular about it. It is an ordinary business
transaction." Sheldon strove to act as though such transactions were
quite the commonplace thing on plantations in the Solomons. "She
invested something like fifteen hundred pounds in Berande--"
"So she said."
"And she has gone to Sydney on business for the plantation."
"Oh, no, she hasn't."
"I beg pardon?" Sheldon queried.
"I said she hasn't, that's all."
"But didn't the _Upolu_ sail? I could have sworn I saw her smoke last
Tuesday afternoon, late, as she passed Savo."
"The _Upolu_ sailed all right." Captain Auckland sipped his whisky with
provoking slowness. "Only Miss Lackland wasn't a passenger."
"Then where is she?"
"At Guvutu, last I saw of her. She was going to Sydney to buy a
schooner, wasn't she?"
"Yes, yes."
"That's what she said. Well, she's bought one, though I wouldn't give
her ten shillings for it if a nor'wester blows up, and it's about time we
had one. This has been too long a spell of good weather to last."
"If you came here to excite my curiosity, old man," Sheldon said, "you've
certainly succeeded. Now go ahead and tell me in a straightforward way
what has happened. What schooner? Where is it? How did she happen to
buy it?"
"First, the schooner _Martha_," the skipper answered, checking his
replies off on his fingers.
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