“That is why I am going. You said it once before, and it is something I cannot brook.”

“What?” He was bewildered by her sudden anger. “If I have offended in any way—”

“Viaburi, you fetch ’m one fella Noa Noah along me,” she commanded.

The black boy started to obey.

“Viaburi! You no stop I break ’m head belong you. And now, Miss Lackland, I insist—you must explain. What have I said or done to merit this?”

“You have presumed, you have dared—”

She choked and swallowed, and could not go on.

Sheldon looked the picture of despair.

“I confess my head is going around with it all,” he said. “If you could only be explicit.”

“As explicit as you were when you told me that you would not permit me to go to Guvutu?”