“There isn’t a doubt but what you saved my life, and I must say – ”
She abruptly removed her hands, showing a wrathful and tear-stained face.
“You brute! You coward!” she cried. “You have made me shoot a man, and I never shot a 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 soothingly.
“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-be-because you were a white man,” she sobbed. “And Dad would never have left any white man in the lurch. But it was your fault. You had no right to get yourself in such a position. Besides, it wasn’t necessary.”
“I am afraid I don’t understand,” he said shortly, turning away. “We will talk it over later on.”
“Look how I get on with the boys,” she said, while he paused in the doorway, stiffly polite, to listen. “There’s those two sick boys I am nursing. They will do anything for me when they get well, and I won’t have to keep them in fear of their life all the time. It is not necessary, I tell you, all this harshness and brutality. What if they are cannibals? They are human beings, just like you and me, and they are amenable to reason. That is what distinguishes all of us from the lower animals.”
He nodded and went out.
“I suppose I’ve been unforgivably foolish,” was her greeting, when he returned several hours later from a round of the plantation. “I’ve been to the hospital, and the man is getting along all right. It is not a serious hurt.”
Sheldon felt unaccountably pleased and happy at the changed aspect of her mood.
“You see, you don’t understand the situation,” he began. “In the first place, the blacks have to be ruled sternly. Kindness is all very well, but you can’t rule them by kindness only. I accept all that you say about the Hawaiians and the Tahitians. You say that they can be handled that way, and I believe you. I have had no experience with them. But you have had no experience with the blacks, and I ask you to believe me. They are different from your natives. You are used to Polynesians. These boys are Melanesians. They’re blacks. They’re niggers – look at their kinky hair. And they’re a whole lot lower than the African niggers. Really, you know, there is a vast difference.”
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