personally aggrieved. He had been filched of something that he
felt was almost his, and his lover’s jealousy was rampant at
thought of this forced familiarity.
It was while in this mood that the screen door banged loudly behind
the heels of Tudor, who strode into the room and paused before him.
Sheldon was unprepared, though it was very apparent that the other
was furious.
“Well?” Tudor demanded defiantly.
And on the instant speech rushed to Sheldon’s lips.
“I hope you won’t attempt anything like it again, that’s all–
except that I shall be only too happy any time to extend to you the
courtesy of my whale-boat. It will land you in Tulagi in a few
hours.”
“As if that would settle it,” was the retort.
“I don’t understand,” Sheldon said simply.
“Then it is because you don’t wish to understand.”
“Still I don’t understand,” Sheldon said in steady, level tones.
“All that is clear to me is that you are exaggerating your own
blunder into something serious.”
Tudor grinned maliciously and replied, –
“It would seem that you are doing the exaggerating, inviting me to
leave in your whale-boat. It is telling me that Berande is not big
enough for the pair of us. Now let me tell you that the Solomon
Islands is not big enough for the pair of us. This thing’s got to
be settled between us, and it may as well be settled right here and
now.”
“I can understand your fire-eating manners as being natural to
you,” Sheldon went on wearily, “but why you should try them on me
is what I can’t comprehend. You surely don’t want to quarrel with
me.”
“I certainly do.”
“But what in heaven’s name for?”
Tudor surveyed him with withering disgust.
“You haven’t the soul of a louse. I suppose any man could make
love to your wife–”
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138
“But I have no wife,” Sheldon interrupted.
“Then you ought to have. The situation is outrageous. You might
at least marry her, as I am honourably willing to do.”
For the first time Sheldon’s rising anger boiled over.
“You–” he began violently, then abruptly caught control of himself
and went on soothingly, “you’d better take a drink and think it
over. That’s my advice to you. Of course, when you do get cool,
after talking to me in this fashion you won’t want to stay on any
longer, so while you’re getting that drink I’ll call the boat’s-
crew and launch a boat. You’ll be in Tulagi by eight this
evening.”
He turned toward the door, as if to put his words into execution,
but the other caught him by the shoulder and twirled him around.
“Look here, Sheldon, I told you the Solomons were too small for the
pair of us, and I meant it.”
“Is that an offer to buy Berande, lock, stock, and barrel?” Sheldon
queried.
“No, it isn’t. It’s an invitation to fight.”
“But what the devil do you want to fight with me for?” Sheldon’s
irritation was growing at the other’s persistence. “I’ve no
quarrel with you. And what quarrel can you have with me? I have
never interfered with you. You were my guest. Miss Lackland is my
partner. If you saw fit to make love to her, and somehow failed to
succeed, why should you want to fight with me? This is the
twentieth century, my dear fellow, and duelling went out of fashion
before you and I were born.”
“You began the row,” Tudor doggedly asserted. “You gave me to
understand that it was time for me to go. You fired me out of your
house, in short. And then you have the cheek to want to know why I
am starting the row. It won’t do, I tell you. You started it, and
I am going to see it through.”
Sheldon smiled tolerantly and proceeded to light a cigarette. But
Tudor was not to be turned aside.
“You started this row,” he urged.
“There isn’t any row. It takes two to make a row, and I, for one,
refuse to have anything to do with such tomfoolery.”
“You started it, I say, and I’ll tell you why you started it.”
“I fancy you’ve been drinking,” Sheldon interposed. “It’s the only
explanation I can find for your unreasonableness.”
“And I’ll tell you why you started it. It wasn’t silliness on your
part to exaggerate this little trifle of love-making into something
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139
serious. I was poaching on your preserves, and you wanted to get
rid of me. It was all very nice and snug here, you and the girl,
until I came along. And now you’re jealous–that’s it, jealousy–
and want me out of it. But I won’t go.”
“Then stay on by all means. I won’t quarrel with you about it.
Make yourself comfortable. Stay for a year, if you wish.”
“She’s not your wife,” Tudor continued, as though the other had not
spoken. “A fellow has the right to make love to her unless she’s
your–well, perhaps it was an error after all, due to ignorance,
perfectly excusable, on my part. I might have seen it with half an
eye if I’d listened to the gossip on the beach. All Guvutu and
Tulagi were laughing about it. I was a fool, and I certainly made
the mistake of taking the situation on its assumed innocent face-
value.”
So angry was Sheldon becoming that the face and form of the other
seemed to vibrate and oscillate before his eyes. Yet outwardly
Sheldon was calm and apparently weary of the discussion.
“Please keep her out of the conversation,” he said.
“But why should I?” was the demand. “The pair of you trapped me
into making a fool of myself. How was I to know that everything
was not all right? You and she acted as if everything were on the
square. But my eyes are open now. Why, she played the outraged
wife to perfection, slapped the transgressor and fled to you.
Pretty good proof of what all the beach has been saying. Partners,
eh?–a business partnership? Gammon my eye, that’s what it is.”
Then it was that Sheldon struck out, coolly and deliberately, with
all the strength of his arm, and Tudor, caught on the jaw, fell
sideways, crumpling as he did so and crushing a chair to kindling
wood beneath the weight of his falling body. He pulled himself
slowly to his feet, but did not offer to rush.
“Now will you fight?” Tudor said grimly.
Sheldon laughed, and for the first time with true spontaneity. The
intrinsic ridiculousness of the situation was too much for his
sense of humour. He made as if to repeat the blow, but Tudor,
white of face, with arms hanging resistlessly at his sides, offered
no defence.
“I don’t mean a fight with fists,” he said slowly. “I mean to a
finish, to the death. You’re a good shot with revolver and rifle.
So am I. That’s the way we’ll settle it.”
“You have gone clean mad. You are a lunatic.”
“No, I’m not,” Tudor retorted. “I’m a man in love. And once again
I ask you to go outside and settle it, with any weapons you
choose.”
Sheldon regarded him for the first time with genuine seriousness,
wondering what strange maggots could be gnawing in his brain to
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140
drive him to such unusual conduct.
“But men don’t act this way in real life,” Sheldon remarked.
“You’ll find I’m pretty real before you’re done with me. I’m going
to kill you to-day.”
“Bosh and nonsense, man.” This time Sheldon had lost his temper
over the superficial aspects of the situation. “Bosh and nonsense,
that’s all it is. Men don’t fight duels in the twentieth century.
It’s–it’s antediluvian, I tell you.”
“Speaking of Joan–”
“Please keep her name out of it,” Sheldon warned him.
“I will, if you’ll fight.”
Sheldon threw up his arms despairingly.
“Speaking of Joan–”
“Look out,” Sheldon warned again.
“Oh, go ahead, knock me down. But that won’t close my mouth. You
can knock me down all day, but as fast as I get to my feet I’ll
speak of Joan again. Now will you fight?”
“Listen to me, Tudor,” Sheldon began, with an effort at
decisiveness. “I am not used to taking from men a tithe of what
I’ve already taken from you.”
“You’ll take a lot more before the day’s out,” was the answer. “I
tell you, you simply must fight. I’ll give you a fair chance to
kill me, but I’ll kill you before the day’s out. This isn’t
civilization. It’s the Solomon Islands, and a pretty primitive
proposition for all that. King Edward and law and order are
represented by the Commissioner at Tulagi and an occasional
visiting gunboat. And two men and one woman is an equally
primitive proposition. We’ll settle it in the good old primitive
way.”
As Sheldon looked at him the thought came to his mind that after