"And she said more. She said, 'And if I catch you
going ashore without orders there'll be trouble--understand, Captain
Munster?'"
"Who in hell's telling this, you or me?" the skipper demanded wrathfully.
"Well, she did, didn't she?" insisted the mate.
"Yes, she did, if you want to make so sure of it. And while you're about
it, you might as well repeat what she said to you when you said you
wouldn't recruit on the Poonga-Poonga coast for twice your screw."
Sparrowhawk's sun-reddened face flamed redder, though he tried to pass
the situation off by divers laughings and chucklings and face-twistings.
"Go on, go on," Sheldon urged; and Munster resumed the narrative.
"'What we need,' says she, 'is the strong hand. It's the only way to
handle them; and we've got to take hold firm right at the beginning. I'm
going ashore to-night to fetch Kina-Kina himself on board, and I'm not
asking who's game to go for I've got every man's work arranged with me
for him. I'm taking my sailors with me, and one white man.' 'Of course,
I'm that white man,' I said; for by that time I was mad enough to go to
hell and back again. 'Of course you're not,' says she. 'You'll have
charge of the covering boat. Curtis stands by the landing boat. Fowler
goes with me.
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