There, they would be merciless.
She watched Sheldon closely when he arrived, and divined that he was not particularly delighted to see them.

But see them he must, and so pressing was the need that, after a little perfunctory general conversation, he led the two men into the stuffy office.

Later in the afternoon, she asked Lalaperu where they had gone.
"My word," quoth Lalaperu; "plenty walk about, plenty look 'm.

Look 'm tree; look 'm ground belong tree; look 'm all fella bridge; look 'm copra- house; look 'm grass-land; look 'm river; look 'm whale-boat--my word, plenty big fella look 'm too much." "What fella man them two fella ?" she queried.
"Big fella marster along white man," was the extent of his description.
But Joan decided that they were men of importance in the Solomons, and that their examination of the plantation and of its accounts was of sinister significance.
At dinner no word was dropped that gave a hint of their errand.

The conversation was on general topics; but Joan could not help noticing the troubled, absent expression that occasionally came into Sheldon's eyes.
After coffee, she left them; and at midnight, from across the compound, she could hear the low murmur of their voices and see glowing the fiery ends of their cigars.