Chapter XXI--Contraband

by Jack London

　　Sheldon did not mention the subject again, nor did his conductchange from what it had always been. There was nothing of thepining lover, nor of the lover at all, in his demeanour. Nor wasthere any awkwardness between them. They were as frank andfriendly in their relations as ever. He had wondered if hisbelligerent love declaration might have aroused some womanly self-consciousness in Joan, but he looked in vain for any sign of it.She appeared as unchanged as he; and while he knew that he hid hisreal feelings, he was firm in his belief that she hid nothing. Andyet the germ he had implanted must be at work; he was confident ofthat, though he was without confidence as to the result. There wasno forecasting this strange girl's processes. She might awaken, itwas true; and on the other hand, and with equal chance, he might bethe wrong man for her, and his declaration of love might only morefirmly set her in her views on single blessedness.

　　While he devoted more and more of his time to the plantationitself, she took over the house and its multitudinous affairs; andshe took hold firmly, in sailor fashion, revolutionizing the systemand discipline. The labour situation on Berande was improving.The Martha had carried away fifty of the blacks whose time was up,and they had been among the worst on the plantation--five-year menrecruited by Billy Be-blowed, men who had gone through the old daysof terrorism when the original owners of Berande had been drivenaway. The new recruits, being broken in under the new regime, gavebetter promise. Joan had joined with Sheldon from the start in theprogramme that they must be gripped with the strong hand, and atthe same time be treated with absolute justice, if they were toescape being contaminated by the older boys that still remained.

　　"I think it would be a good idea to put all the gangs at work closeto the house this afternoon," she announced one day at breakfast."I've cleaned up the house, and you ought to clean up the barracks.There is too much stealing going on."

　　"A good idea," Sheldon agreed. "Their boxes should be searched.I've just missed a couple of shirts, and my best toothbrush isgone."

　　"And two boxes of my cartridges," she added, "to say nothing ofhandkerchiefs, towels, sheets, and my best pair of slippers. Butwhat they want with your toothbrush is more than I can imagine.They'll be stealing the billiard balls next."

　　"One did disappear a few weeks before you came," Sheldon laughed."We'll search the boxes this afternoon."

　　And a busy afternoon it was. Joan and Sheldon, both armed, wentthrough the barracks, house by house, the boss-boys assisting, andhalf a dozen messengers, in relay, shouting along the line thenames of the boys wanted. Each boy brought the key to hisparticular box, and was permitted to look on while the contentswere overhauled by the boss-boys.

　　A wealth of loot was recovered. There were fully a dozen cane-knives--big hacking weapons with razor-edges, capable ofdecapitating a man at a stroke. Towels, sheets, shirts, andslippers, along with toothbrushes, wisp-brooms, soap, the missingbilliard ball, and all the lost and forgotten trifles of manymonths, came to light. But most astonishing was the quantity ofammunition-cartridges for Lee-Metfords, for Winchesters andMarlins, for revolvers from thirty-two calibre to forty-five, shot-gun cartridges, Joan's two boxes of thirty-eight, cartridges ofprodigious bore for the ancient Sniders of Malaita, flasks of blackpowder, sticks of dynamite, yards of fuse, and boxes of detonators.But the great find was in the house occupied by Gogoomy and fivePort Adams recruits. The fact that the boxes yielded nothingexcited Sheldon's suspicions, and he gave orders to dig up theearthen floor. Wrapped in matting, well oiled, free from rust, andbrand new, two Winchesters were first unearthed. Sheldon did notrecognize them. They had not come from Berande; neither had theforty flasks of black powder found under the corner-post of thehouse; and while he could not be sure, he could remember no loss ofeight boxes of detonators. A big Colt's revolver he recognized asHughie Drummond's; while Joan identified a thirty-two Ivor andJohnson as a loss reported by Matapuu the first week he landed atBerande. The absence of any cartridges made Sheldon persist in thedigging up of the floor, and a fifty-pound flour tin was hisreward. With glowering eyes Gogoomy looked on while Sheldon tookfrom the tin a hundred rounds each for the two Winchesters andfully as many rounds more of nondescript cartridges of all sortsand makes and calibres.

　　The contraband and stolen property was piled in assorted heaps onthe back veranda of the bungalow. A few paces from the bottom ofthe steps were grouped the forty-odd culprits, with behind them, insolid array, the several hundred blacks of the plantation. At thehead of the steps Joan and Sheldon were seated, while on the stepsstood the gang-bosses. One by one the culprits were called up andexamined. Nothing definite could be extracted from them. Theylied transparently, but persistently, and when caught in one lieexplained it away with half a dozen others. One boy complacentlyannounced that he had found eleven sticks of dynamite on the beach.Matapuu's revolver, found in the box of one Kapu, was explainedaway by that boy as having been given to him by Lervumie.Lervumie, called forth to testify, said he had got it from Noni;Noni had got it from Sulefatoi; Sulefatoi from Choka; Choka fromNgava; and Ngava completed the circle by stating that it had beengiven to him by Kapu. Kapu, thus doubly damned, calmly gave fulldetails of how it had been given to him by Lervumie; and Lervumie,with equal wealth of detail, told how he had received it from Noni;and from Noni to Sulefatoi it went on around the circle again.

　　Divers articles were traced indubitably to the house-boys, each ofwhom steadfastly proclaimed his own innocence and cast doubts onhis fellows. The boy with the billiard ball said that he had neverseen it in his life before, and hazarded the suggestion that it hadgot into his box through some mysterious and occultly evil agency.So far as he was concerned it might have dropped down from heavenfor all he knew how it got there. To the cooks and boats'-crews ofevery vessel that had dropped anchor off Berande in the pastseveral years were ascribed the arrival of scores of the stolenarticles and of the major portion of the ammunition. There was notracing the truth in any of it, though it was without doubt thatthe unidentified weapons and unfamiliar cartridges had come ashoreoff visiting craft.

　　"Look at it," Sheldon said to Joan. "We've been sleeping over avolcano. They ought to be whipped--"

　　"No whip me," Gogoomy cried out from below. "Father belong me bigfella chief. Me whip, too much trouble along you, close up, myword."

　　"What name you fella Gogoomy!" Sheldon shouted. "I knock sevenbells out of you. Here, you Kwaque, put 'm irons along that fellaGogoomy."

　　Kwaque, a strapping gang-boss, plucked Gogoomy from out of hisfollowing, and, helped by the other gang-bosses; twisted his armsbehind him and snapped on the heavy handcuffs.

　　"Me finish along you, close up, you die altogether," Gogoomy, withwrath-distorted face, threatened the boss-boy.

　　"Please, no whipping," Joan said in a low voice. "If whipping isnecessary, send them to Tulagi and let the Government do it. Givethem their choice between a fine or an official whipping."

　　Sheldon nodded and stood up, facing the blacks.

　　"Manonmie!" he called.

　　Manonmie stood forth and waited.

　　"You fella boy bad fella too much," Sheldon charged. "You steal 'mplenty. You steal 'm one fella towel, one fella cane-knife, two-ten fella cartridge. My word, plenty bad fella steal 'm you. Mecross along you too much. S'pose you like 'm, me take 'm one fellapound along you in big book. S'pose you no like 'm me take 'm onefella pound, then me send you fella along Tulagi catch 'm onestrong fella government whipping. Plenty New Georgia boys, plentyYsabel boys stop along jail along Tulagi. Them fella no likeMalaita boys little bit. My word, they give 'm you strong fellawhipping. What you say?"

　　"You take 'm one fella pound along me," was the answer.

　　And Manonmie, patently relieved, stepped back, while Sheldonentered the fine in the plantation labour journal.

　　Boy after boy, he called the offenders out and gave them theirchoice; and, boy by boy, each one elected to pay the fine imposed.Some fines were as low as several shillings; while in the moreserious cases, such as thefts of guns and ammunition, the fineswere correspondingly heavy.

　　Gogoomy and his five tribesmen were fined three pounds each, and atGogoomy's guttural command they refused to pay.

　　"S'pose you go along Tulagi," Sheldon warned him, "you catch 'mstrong fella whipping and you stop along jail three fella year.Mr. Burnett, he look 'm along Winchester, look 'm along cartridge,look 'm along revolver, look 'm along black powder, look 'm alongdynamite--my word, he cross too much, he give you three fella yearalong jail. S'pose you no like 'm pay three fella pound you stopalong jail. Savvee?"

　　Gogoomy wavered.

　　"It's true--that's what Burnett would give them," Sheldon said inan aside to Joan.

　　"You take 'm three fella pound along me," Gogoomy muttered, at thesame time scowling his hatred at Sheldon, and transferring half thescowl to Joan and Kwaque. "Me finish along you, you catch 'm bigfella trouble, my word. Father belong me big fella chief alongPort Adams."

　　"That will do," Sheldon warned him. "You shut mouth belong you."

　　"Me no fright," the son of a chief retorted, by his insolenceincreasing his stature in the eyes of his fellows.

　　"Lock him up for to-night," Sheldon said to Kwaque. "Sun he comeup put 'm that fella and five fella belong him along grass-cutting.Savvee?"

　　Kwaque grinned.

　　"Me savvee," he said. "Cut 'm grass, ngari-ngari stop 'm alonggrass. My word!"

　　"There will be trouble with Gogoomy yet," Sheldon said to Joan, asthe boss-boys marshalled their gangs and led them away to theirwork. "Keep an eye on him. Be careful when you are riding aloneon the plantation. The loss of those Winchesters and all thatammunition has hit him harder than your cuffing did. He is dead-ripe for mischief."