But most astonishing
was the quantity of ammunition-cartridges for Lee-Metfords, for
Winchesters and Marlins, for revolvers from thirty-two calibre to forty-
five, shot-gun cartridges, Joan's two boxes of thirty-eight, cartridges
of prodigious bore for the ancient Sniders of Malaita, flasks of black
powder, sticks of dynamite, yards of fuse, and boxes of detonators. But
the great find was in the house occupied by Gogoomy and five Port Adams
recruits. The fact that the boxes yielded nothing excited Sheldon's
suspicions, and he gave orders to dig up the earthen floor. Wrapped in
matting, well oiled, free from rust, and brand new, two Winchesters were
first unearthed. Sheldon did not recognize them. They had not come from
Berande; neither had the forty flasks of black powder found under the
corner-post of the house; and while he could not be sure, he could
remember no loss of eight boxes of detonators. A big Colt's revolver he
recognized as Hughie Drummond's; while Joan identified a thirty-two Ivor
and Johnson as a loss reported by Matapuu the first week he landed at
Berande. The absence of any cartridges made Sheldon persist in the
digging up of the floor, and a fifty-pound flour tin was his reward. With
glowering eyes Gogoomy looked on while Sheldon took from the tin a
hundred rounds each for the two Winchesters and fully as many rounds more
of nondescript cartridges of all sorts and makes and calibres.
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