The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-18

HARD BITTEN GANG. AfEXT morning Joan and Shel- I'M don, at breakfast, were aroused by a swelling mur- mur of angry voices. The first rule of Berande had been broken. The compound had been entered with out permission or command, and all the POO laborers, with the exception of the boss boys, were guilty of the offense. They crowded up,. threaten ing and shouting, close under the front veranda. Sheldon leaned over the veranda railing, 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 unusually ferocious, even for Solomon islanders. One was Carin-Jama, otherwise the Silent, and the other was Bellin-Jama, the Boast CT. Both had served on the Queens land plantations in the old days, and khey were known as evil characters wherever white men met and gamed.
 eve fella boy we want m them two black fella Mary" said Bellin- lama. s
 What do you want along black feIla Mary?" Sheldon asked.
 "Kill 'm," said Bellin-Jama.
 'What name you fella boy talk along mel" 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." Shel- don said sharply, "or I send you along Tulagi one big fella flashing. 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.
 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 halfway to his feet, while the ten 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 1eeting instant 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 moment when not the slight est 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. He glanced down at her helplessly, and moistened his lips.
 ''I want to thank you," he began. "There isn't doubt but what you saved my life, and I must say'- She abruptly removed her hands, showing wrathfpl and tear stained face.
 "You brute! You cowardw she cried. ''YOu have made me shoot man, and I never shot man in my life before.'' 'It's only a flesh wound, and he isn't going to die," Sheldon managed to interpolate.
 What Of that? I shot him just the same. There was no need for you to jump down there that way It was brutal and cowardly."
 "Oh, now I say'- he began sooth ingly.
 "Go away. Don't you see I hate you! hate you! Oh, won't you go away.
 Sheldon was white with anger. "Then why in the name of common sense did you shoot?" he demanded "Be-6e-cauSe you were white man." she sobbed. And dad would never nave left any white man in the lurch. But it was your fault. You had no right to get yourself in such position. Besides, it wasn't neeNs- sary."
 rro D.