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Adventure-Part8_JACK LONDON(1876-1916)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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had been a low, degraded, wretchedfemale; for to the Solomon

Islander all females are low, degraded, and wretched.



Next morning, Joan and Sheldon, at breakfast, were aroused by a

swelling murmur of angry voices. The first rule of Berande had



been broken. The compound had been entered without permission or

command, and all the two hundred labourers, with the exception of



the boss-boys, were guilty of the offence. They crowded up,

threatening and shouting, close under the front veranda. Sheldon



leaned over the verandarailing, looking down upon them, while Joan

stood slightly back. When the uproar was stilled, two brothers



stood forth. They were large men, splendidly muscled, and with

faces unusuallyferocious, even for Solomon Islanders. One was



Carin-Jama, otherwise The Silent; and the other was Bellin-Jama,

The Boaster. Both had served on the Queensland plantations in the



old days, and they were known as evil characters wherever white men

met and gammed.



"We fella boy we want 'm them dam two black fella Mary," said

Bellin-Jama.



"What you do along black fella Mary?" Sheldon asked.

"Kill 'm," said Bellin-Jama.



"What name you fella boy talk along me?" Sheldon demanded, with a

show of rising anger. "Big bell he ring. You no belong along



here. You belong along field. Bime by, big fella bell he ring,

you stop along kai-kai, you come talk along me about two fella



Mary. Now all you boy get along out of here."

The gang waited to see what Bellin-Jama would do, and Bellin-Jama



stood still.

"Me no go," he said.



"You watch out, Bellin-Jama," Sheldon said sharply, "or I send you

along Tulagi one big fella lashing. My word, you catch 'm strong



fella."

Bellin-Jama glared up belligerently.



"You want 'm fight," he said, putting up his fists in approved,

returned-Queenslander style.



Now, in the Solomons, where whites are few and blacks are many, and

where the whites do the ruling, such an offer to fight is the



deadliest insult. Blacks are not supposed to dare so highly as to

offer to fight a white man. At the best, all they can look for is



to be beaten by the white man.

A murmur of admiration at Bellin-Jama's bravery went up from the



listening blacks. But Bellin-Jama's voice was still ringing in the

air, and the murmuring was just beginning, when Sheldon cleared the



rail, leaping straight downward. From the top of the railing to

the ground it was fifteen feet, and Bellin-Jama was directly



beneath. Sheldon's flying body struck him and crushed him to

earth. No blows were needed to be struck. The black had been



knocked helpless. Joan, startled by the unexpected leap, saw

Carin-Jama, The Silent, reach out and seize Sheldon by the throat



as he was half-way to his feet, while the five-score blacks surged

forward for the killing. Her revolver was out, and Carin-Jama let



go his grip, reeling backward with a bullet in his shoulder. In

that fleetinginstant of action she had thought to shoot him in the



arm, which, at that short distance, might reasonably have been

achieved. But the wave of savages leaping forward had changed her



shot to the shoulder. It was a moment when not the slightest

chance could be taken.



The instant his throat was released, Sheldon struck out with his

fist, and Carin-Jama joined his brother on the ground. The mutiny



was quelled, and five minutes more saw the brothers being carried

to the hospital, and the mutineers, marshalled by the gang-bosses,



on the way to the fields.

When Sheldon came up on the veranda, he found Joan collapsed on the



steamer-chair and in tears. The sight unnerved him as the row just

over could not possibly have done. A woman in tears was to him an



embarrassing situation; and when that woman was Joan Lackland, from

whom he had grown to expect anything unexpected, he was really



frightened. He glanced down at her helplessly, and moistened his

lips.



"I want to thank you," he began. "There isn't a doubt but what you




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