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.