Chapter XVII--"Your" Miss Lackland

by Jack London

　　The next morning Sheldon came in from the plantation to breakfast,to find the mission ketch, Apostle, at anchor, her crew swimmingtwo mares and a filly ashore. Sheldon recognized the animals asbelonging to the Resident Commissioner, and he immediately wonderedif Joan had bought them. She was certainly living up to her threatof rattling the dry bones of the Solomons, and he was prepared foranything.

　　"Miss Lackland sent them," said Welshmere, the missionary doctor,stepping ashore and shaking hands with him. "There's also a box ofsaddles on board. And this letter from her. And the skipper ofthe Flibberty-Gibbet."

　　The next moment, and before he could greet him, Oleson stepped fromthe boat and began.

　　"She's stolen the Flibberty, Mr. Sheldon. Run clean away with her.She's a wild one. She gave me the fever. Brought it on by shock.And got me drunk, as well--rotten drunk."

　　Dr. Welshmere laughed heartily.

　　"Nevertheless, she is not an unmitigated evil, your Miss Lackland.She's sworn three men off their drink, or, to the same purpose,shut off their whisky. You know them--Brahms, Curtis, and Fowler.She shipped them on the Flibberty-Gibbet along with her."

　　"She's the skipper of the Flibberty now," Oleson broke in. "Andshe'll wreck her as sure as God didn't make the Solomons."

　　Dr. Welshmere tried to look shocked, but laughed again.

　　"She has quite a way with her," he said. "I tried to back out ofbringing the horses over. Said I couldn't charge freight, that theApostle was under a yacht license, that I was going around by Savoand the upper end of Guadalcanar. But it was no use. 'Bother thecharge,' said she. 'You take the horses like a good man, and whenI float the Martha I'll return the service some day.'"

　　"And 'bother your orders,' said she to me," Oleson cried. "'I'myour boss now,' said she, 'and you take your orders from me.''Look at that load of ivory nuts,' I said. 'Bother them,' saidshe; 'I'm playin' for something bigger than ivory nuts. We'll dumpthem overside as soon as we get under way.'"

　　Sheldon put his hands to his ears.

　　"I don't know what has happened, and you are trying to tell me thetale backwards. Come up to the house and get in the shade andbegin at the beginning."

　　"What I want to know," Oleson began, when they were seated, "is isshe your partner or ain't she? That's what I want to know."

　　"She is," Sheldon assured him.

　　"Well, who'd have believed it!" Oleson glanced appealingly at Dr.Welshmere, and back again at Sheldon. "I've seen a few unlikelythings in these Solomons--rats two feet long, butterflies theCommissioner hunts with a shot-gun, ear-ornaments that would shamethe devil, and head-hunting devils that make the devil look like anangel. I've seen them and got used to them, but this young womanof yours--"

　　"Miss Lackland is my partner and part-owner of Berande," Sheldoninterrupted.

　　"So she said," the irate skipper dashed on. "But she had no papersto show for it. How was I to know? And then there was that loadof ivory nuts-eight tons of them."

　　"For heaven's sake begin at the--" Sheldon tried to interrupt.

　　"And then she's hired them drunken loafers, three of the worstscoundrels that ever disgraced the Solomons--fifteen quid a montheach--what d'ye think of that? And sailed away with them, too!Phew!--You might give me a drink. The missionary won't mind. I'vebeen on his teetotal hooker four days now, and I'm perishing."

　　Dr. Welshmere nodded in reply to Sheldon's look of inquiry, andViaburi was dispatched for the whisky and siphons.

　　"It is evident, Captain Oleson," Sheldon remarked to that refreshedmariner, "that Miss Lackland has run away with your boat. Nowplease give a plain statement of what occurred."

　　"Right O; here goes. I'd just come in on the Flibberty. She wason board before I dropped the hook--in that whale-boat of hers withher gang of Tahiti heathens--that big Adamu Adam and the rest.'Don't drop the anchor, Captain Oleson,' she sang out. 'I want youto get under way for Poonga-Poonga.' I looked to see if she'd beendrinking. What was I to think? I was rounding up at the time,alongside the shoal--a ticklish place--headsails running down andlosing way, so I says, 'Excuse me, Miss Lackland,' and yellsfor'ard, 'Let go!'

　　"'You might have listened to me and saved yourself trouble,' saysshe, climbing over the rail and squinting along for'ard and seeingthe 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 thinkyou'd take her on as a partner, and I told her as much and wantedproof. She got high and mighty, and I told her I was old enough tobe her grandfather and that I wouldn't take gammon from a chit likeher. And then I ordered her off the Flibberty. 'Captain Oleson,'she says, sweet as you please, 'I've a few minutes to spare on you,and I've got some good whisky over on the Emily. Come on along.Besides, I want your advice about this wrecking business.Everybody says you're a crackerjack sailor-man'--that's what shesaid, 'crackerjack.' And I went, in her whale-boat, Adamu Adamsteering and looking as solemn as a funeral.

　　"On the way she told me about the Martha, and how she'd bought her,and was going to float her. She said she'd chartered the Emily,and was sailing as soon as I could get the Flibberty underway. Itstruck me that her gammon was reasonable enough, and I agreed topull out for Berande right O, and get your orders to go along toPoonga-Poonga. But she said there wasn't a second to be lost byany such foolishness, and that I was to sail direct for Poonga-Poonga, and that if I couldn't take her word that she was yourpartner, she'd get along without me and the Flibberty. And rightthere's where she fooled me.

　　"Down in the Emily's cabin was them three soaks--you know them--Fowler and Curtis and that Brahms chap. 'Have a drink,' says she.I thought they looked surprised when she unlocked the whisky lockerand sent a nigger for the glasses and water-monkey. But she musthave tipped them off unbeknownst to me, and they knew just what todo. 'Excuse me,' she says, 'I'm going on deck a minute.' Now thatminute was half an hour. I hadn't had a drink in ten days. I'm anold man and the fever has weakened me. Then I took it on an emptystomach, too, and there was them three soaks setting me an example,they arguing for me to take the Flibberty to Poonga-Poonga, an' mepointing out my duty to the contrary. The trouble was, all thearguments were pointed with drinks, and me not being a drinkingman, so to say, and weak from fever . . .

　　"Well, anyway, at the end of the half-hour down she came again andtook a good squint at me. 'That'll do nicely,' I remember hersaying; and with that she took the whisky bottles and hove themoverside through the companionway. 'That's the last, she said tothe three soaks, 'till the Martha floats and you're back in Guvutu.It'll be a long time between drinks.' And then she laughed.

　　"She looked at me and said--not to me, mind you, but to the soaks:'It's time this worthy man went ashore'--me! worthy man! 'Fowler,'she said--you know, just like a straight order, and she didn'tMister him--it was plain Fowler--'Fowler,' she said, 'just tellAdamu Adam to man the whale-boat, and while he's taking CaptainOleson ashore have your boat put me on the Flibberty. The three ofyou sail with me, so pack your dunnage. And the one of you thatshows up best will take the mate's billet. Captain Oleson doesn'tcarry a mate, you know.'

　　"I don't remember much after that. All hands got me over the side,and it seems to me I went to sleep, sitting in the stern-sheets andwatching that Adamu steer. Then I saw the Flibberty's mainsailhoisting, and heard the clank of her chain coming in, and I wokeup. 'Here, put me on the Flibberty,' I said to Adamu. 'I put youon the beach,' said he. 'Missie Lackalanna say beach plenty goodfor you.' Well, I let out a yell and reached for the steering-sweep. I was doing my best by my owners, you see. Only that Adamugives me a shove down on the bottom-boards, puts one foot on me tohold me down, and goes on steering. And that's all. The shock ofthe whole thing brought on fever. And now I've come to find outwhether I'm skipper of the Flibberty, or that chit of yours withher pirating, heathen boat's-crew."

　　"Never mind, skipper. You can take a vacation on pay." Sheldonspoke with more assurance than he felt. "If Miss Lackland, who ismy partner, has seen fit to take charge of the Flibberty-Gibbet,why, it is all right. As you will agree, there was no time to belost if the Martha was to be got off. It is a bad reef, and anyconsiderable sea would knock her bottom out. You settle down here,skipper, and rest up and get the fever out of your bones. When theFlibberty-Gibbet comes back, you'll take charge again, of course."

　　After Dr. Welshmere and the Apostle departed and Captain Oleson hadturned in for a sleep in a veranda hammock, Sheldon opened Joan'sletter.

　　DEAR MR. SHELDON,--Please forgive me for stealing the Flibberty-Gibbet. I simply had to. The Martha means everything to us.Think of it, only fifty-five pounds for her, two hundred andseventy-five dollars. If I don't save her, I know I shall be ableto pay all expenses out of her gear, which the natives will nothave carried off. And if I do save her, it is the haul of a life-time. And if I don't save her, I'll fill the Emily and theFlibberty-Gibbet with recruits. Recruits are needed right now onBerande more than anything else.

　　And please, please don't be angry with me. You said I shouldn't gorecruiting on the Flibberty, and I won't. I'll go on the Emily.

　　I bought two cows this afternoon. That trader at Nogi died offever, and I bought them from his partner, Sam Willis his name is,who agrees to deliver them--most likely by the Minerva next timeshe is down that way. Berande has been long enough on tinned milk.

　　And Dr. Welshmere has agreed to get me some orange and lime treesfrom the mission station at Ulava. He will deliver them the nexttrip of the Apostle. If the Sydney steamer arrives before I getback, plant the sweet corn she will bring between the young treeson the high bank of the Balesuna. The current is eating in againstthat bank, and you should do something to save it.

　　I have ordered some fig-trees and loquats, too, from Sydney. Dr.Welshmere will bring some mango-seeds. They are big trees andrequire plenty of room.

　　The Martha is registered 110 tons. She is the biggest schooner inthe Solomons, and the best. I saw a little of her lines and guessthe rest. She will sail like a witch. If she hasn't filled withwater, her engine will be all right. The reason she went ashorewas because it was not working. The engineer had disconnected thefeed-pipes to clean out the rust. Poor business, unless at anchoror with plenty of sea room.

　　Plant all the trees in the compound, even if you have to clean outthe palms later on.

　　And don't plant the sweet corn all at once. Let a few days elapsebetween plantings.

　　JOAN LACKLAND.

　　He fingered the letter, lingering over it and scrutinizing thewriting in a way that was not his wont. How characteristic, washis thought, as he studied the boyish scrawl--clear to read,painfully, clear, but none the less boyish. The clearness of itreminded him of her face, of her cleanly stencilled brows, herstraightly chiselled nose, the very clearness of the gaze of hereyes, the firmly yet delicately moulded lips, and the throat,neither fragile nor robust, but--but just right, he concluded, anadequate and beautiful pillar for so shapely a burden.

　　He looked long at the name. Joan Lackland--just an assemblage ofletters, of commonplace letters, but an assemblage that generated asubtle and heady magic. It crept into his brain and twined andtwisted his mental processes until all that constituted him at thatmoment went out in love to that scrawled signature. A fewcommonplace letters--yet they caused him to know in himself a lackthat sweetly hurt and that expressed itself in vague spiritualoutpourings and delicious yearnings. Joan Lackland! Each time helooked at it there arose visions of her in a myriad moods andguises--coming in out of the flying smother of the gale that hadwrecked her schooner; launching a whale-boat to go a-fishing;running dripping from the sea, with streaming hair and clinginggarments, to the fresh-water shower; frightening four-scorecannibals with an empty chlorodyne bottle; teaching Ornfiri how tomake bread; hanging her Stetson hat and revolver-belt on the hookin the living-room; talking gravely about winning to hearth andsaddle of her own, or juvenilely rattling on about romance andadventure, bright-eyed, her face flushed and eager with enthusiasm.Joan Lackland! He mused over the cryptic wonder of it till thesecrets of love were made clear and he felt a keen sympathy forlovers who carved their names on trees or wrote them on the beach-sands of the sea.

　　Then he came back to reality, and his face hardened. Even then shewas on the wild coast of Malaita, and at Poonga-Poonga, of allvillainous and dangerous portions the worst, peopled with a teemingpopulation of head-hunters, robbers, and murderers. For theinstant he entertained the rash thought of calling his boat's-crewand starting immediately in a whale-boat for Poonga-Poonga. Butthe next instant the idea was dismissed. What could he do if hedid go? First, she would resent it. Next, she would laugh at himand call him a silly; and after all he would count for only onerifle more, and she had many rifles with her. Three things onlycould he do if he went. He could command her to return; he couldtake the Flibberty-Gibbet away from her; he could dissolve theirpartnership;--any and all of which he knew would be foolish andfutile, and he could hear her explain in terse set terms that shewas legally of age and that nobody could say come or go to her.No, his pride would never permit him to start for Poonga-Poonga,though his heart whispered that nothing could be more welcome thana message from her asking him to come and lend a hand. Her verywords--"lend a hand"; and in his fancy, he could see and hear hersaying them.

　　There was much in her wilful conduct that caused him to wince inthe heart of him. He was appalled by the thought of her shoulderto shoulder with the drunken rabble of traders and beachcombers atGuvutu. It was bad enough for a clean, fastidious man; but for ayoung woman, a girl at that, it was awful. The theft of theFlibberty-Gibbet was merely amusing, though the means by which thetheft had been effected gave him hurt. Yet he found consolation inthe fact that the task of making Oleson drunk had been turned overto the three scoundrels. And next, and swiftly, came the vision ofher, alone with those same three scoundrels, on the Emily, sailingout to sea from Guvutu in the twilight with darkness coming on.Then came visions of Adamu Adam and Noa Noah and all her brawnyTahitian following, and his anxiety faded away, being replaced byirritation that she should have been capable of such wildness ofconduct.

　　And the irritation was still on him as he got up and went inside tostare at the hook on the wall and to wish that her Stetson hat andrevolver-belt were hanging from it.