The missionary won't mind. I've been on his teetotal hooker
four days now, and I'm perishing."
Dr. Welshmere nodded in reply to Sheldon's look of inquiry, and Viaburi
was dispatched for the whisky and siphons.
"It is evident, Captain Oleson," Sheldon remarked to that refreshed
mariner, "that Miss Lackland has run away with your boat. Now please
give a plain statement of what occurred."
"Right O; here goes. I'd just come in on the _Flibberty_. She was on
board before I dropped the hook--in that whale-boat of hers with her gang
of Tahiti heathens--that big Adamu Adam and the rest. 'Don't drop the
anchor, Captain Oleson,' she sang out. 'I want you to get under way for
Poonga-Poonga.' I looked to see if she'd been drinking. What was I to
think? I was rounding up at the time, alongside the shoal--a ticklish
place--head-sails running down and losing way, so I says, 'Excuse me,
Miss Lackland,' and yells for'ard, 'Let go!'
"'You might have listened to me and saved yourself trouble,' says she,
climbing over the rail and squinting along for'ard and seeing the first
shackle flip out and stop. 'There's fifteen fathom,' says she; 'you may
as well turn your men to and heave up.'
"And then we had it out. I didn't believe her. I didn't think you'd
take her on as a partner, and I told her as much and wanted proof.
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