“I’d forgot to say they took Bone with them. They’d used the chap so
much in the outfitting that they thought it was better to take him
along than leave him behind to talk, maybe; and they’d no sooner
cleared the Gate and left the Farallones behind them than the weather
set up its fist against them, and the old _Heart_ with a beam sea
showed them how she could roll; she could beat a barrel any day in the
week on that game; it was an old saying on the front that she could
beat Ginnell when he was drunk, and Bone said the rolling took it out
of them so that it was a sick and quarrelling ship right from the
start to the line. All but Logan. He never quarrelled with no one, he
wasn’t that sort; always smooth spoken and give and take, he held that
show together, smilin’ all the time.
“Then ten degrees south of the line and somewhere between the Paumotus
and Bolivia they began to keep their eyes skinned for the island,
struck the spot given by Appleby and went right over it.
“There wasn’t no island.
“About noon it was on the day they ought to have hit the place, an’
you can picture that flummoxed lot standin’ on the deck of the old
_Heart;_ thousands of dollars gone on a schooner and trade and all,
and then left.
“The sails were drawing and they were still heading south, and
Johnstone up and spoke:
“‘Appleby’s done us,’ says he, ‘and there’s no use in crying over
spilt milk. There’s nothing for it but to go back and sell off at a
loss. I’m done worse than you, seein’ I’ve sold the saloon. Tell you
what, I’ll give you fifteen hundred dollars for your share in the ship
and fixin’s; maybe I’ll lose when I come to realise,’ says he, ‘for
there’s no knowing what she and the truck will fetch when it comes to
auction.’
“He was one of them lightning calculators, and he reckoned to clear a
few hundred dollars on the deal.
“Logan was likewise, and he thinks for a moment, and he says, ‘Make it
sixteen hundred and I’ll sell you my share in the dam show right out.’
“Done,” says Johnstone.
“The words were scarce out of his mouth when the Chink stuck in the
crosstree cries out ‘Ki, hi.’
“The whole bundle of them was in the rigging next minute lookin’
ahead, and then, right to s’uth’ard, there was a white stain on the
sky no bigger than a window.
“Logan laughs.
“‘That’s her,’ says he.
“Then they see the pa’m tops like heads of pins, and they came down.
“If that was the island, then Appleby’s position was near fifty miles
out, and again, if it was the island, Logan was done, seeing he’d sold
his interest in the show to Johnstone. Bone said he didn’t turn a
hair, just laughed like the good-natured chap he was, whiles they
cracked everything on and raised the place, coming into the lagoon
near sundown.
“But Bone had begun to have his suspicions of Logan by the way he took
the business, and determined to keep his weather eye lifting.
“It was a big atoll, near a mile broad at its narrowest and running
north and south, with the reef break to north just as given in
Appleby’s notebook. They ran her to the west a bit when they got in,
and dropped anchor near the beach, where there was a Kanaka village
with canoe houses and all, and the Kanakas watching them. They didn’t
bother about no Kanakas; it was out boat as soon as the killick had
took the coral, and hunt for oysters. And there they were, sure
enough, a bit more up by the western beach as Appleby had noted in his
book, square acres of them, virgin oysters if ever oysters were
virgins, and a dead sure fortune.
“The chaps came back and went down below to have a clack, and
Johnstone turns generous, which he couldn’t well help, seeing that
Logan might turn on him and blow the gaff, and says he: ‘You’ve stood
out and sold your share in the venture, but I’m no shyster, and, if
you’re willing, you shall have quarter share in the takings and half a
share in the shell.’
“‘Right,’ says Logan.
“‘You helping to work the beds,’ said Johnstone.
“‘I’m with you,’ says the other.
“Old Jack Bone, who was listening, cocked his ear at this.
“It seemed to him more than ever that Logan was too much of a
Christian angel over the hull of this business. He knew the chap by
instinc’ to be a dam thief, or maybe worse, but he said nothing, and
then a noise brought them up on deck, and they found the island
Kanakas had all put off in canoes with fruit and live chickens and was
wanting to trade.
“It was just after sundown, but that didn’t matter to them; they lit
up torches and the place was like a regatta round the old _Heart_.
“Two of the chiefs came aboard and brought their goods with them and
squatted on their hams, Johnstone doing the bargaining, and, when the
bazaar was over, Johnstone turns to Logan, and says he: ‘Lord love
me,’ says he, ‘where did these chaps learn their business instinc’s?
Chicago I shud think. Where in the nation will we be when it comes to
paying them for the diving work? They’ll clear us out of goods before
a month is over, and that knocks the bottom out of the proposition.
It’s the Labour problem over again,’ says he, ‘and we’re up against
it.’
“‘We are,’ says Logan, ‘sure. These chaps aren’t Kanakas; they’re
Rockfellers, virgin ones, maybe, but just as hard shelled. I’ll have
to do a think.’
“The Chinks had all congregated down into the fo’c’sle to smoke their
opium pipes, and Logan, he lit a cigar and sat down on deck in the
light of the moon that had just risen up, and there he sits like an
image smoking and thinking whiles the others went below.
“It was a tough proposition.
“The Chinks were no use for diving. They’d been questioned on that
subject and risen against it to a man. The island Kanakas were the
only labour, and, taking the rate of exchange, the pearls would have
had to be as big as turnips to make the game pay.
“But this scamp Logan wasn’t the chap to be bested by Kanakas, and
having done his think, he went below and turned in.
V
“Next morning bright and early he tells Johnstone to get the diving
boat out, and he sends Bone ashore in the dinghy with word for the
natives to come out and see the fun. Bone could talk their lingo. He’d
been potting about forty years in these seas, before he’d taken up the
Shanghai job in ’Frisco, and he could talk most all the Island patter.
Off he goes, and then the Chinks get the diving boat out, pump and
all, and two sets of dresses, and they rowed her off and anchored her
convenient to the bed, and they hadn’t more’n got the anchor down when
the canoes came out, and Logan, talking to the Kanakas by means of
Bone, told them he was going down to walk about on the lagoon floor,
dry.
“Then he gets into a dress and has the headpiece screwed on, and down
he goes, the Kanakas all hanging their heads over the canoe sides and
watching him. They see him walking about and picking up oysters and
making a grab at a passing fish’s tail and cutting all sorts of
antics, and there he stuck twenty minutes, and they laughing and
shouting, till the place sounded more like Coney Island than a
lonesome lagoon, God knows where, south of the line.
“Then up he comes, having sent up half a dozen bags full of oysters,
and steps out of his diving gear—dry.
“They felt him, to make sure he was dry, and then the row began.
“The chief of the crowd, Maurini by name, wanted to go down and play
about, but Logan held off, asked him what he’d give to be let down,
and the chap offered half a dozen fowl. Logan closed, and the chap was
rigged up and got his instructions from Bone of what he was to do, and
how he wasn’t to let the air pipe be tangled, and so on, and how he
was to pick up oysters and send them up in the bag nets. Down the chap
goes, and gets the hang of the business in two minutes, after he’d
done a trip up or two and nearly strangled himself. After that the
whole of the other chaps were wild to have a hand in the business, and
Logan let them, asking no payment, only the oysters.
“In a week’s time he had all the labour he wanted. Those Kanakas were
always ready for the fun, and when any of them tired off there was
always green hands to take their places; the work was nothing to them;
it was something new, and it never lost colour, not for six months.
Then the pumps began to suck and they’d had enough. Wouldn’t go down
unless under pay, and didn’t do the work half as well.
“Meanwhile, Logan and Johnstone had built a house ashore and hived
half a hat full of pearls, and about this time the feeling came on
Bone strong that Logan was going to jump. He didn’t know how, but he
was sure in his mind that Logan was going to do Johnstone in for his
share, seeing the amount of stuff they’d collected.
“He got Johnstone aside and warned him.
“‘You look out,’ says he, ‘never you be alone with that chap when no
one’s looking, for it’s in my mind he’s going to scrag you.’
“Johnstone laughed.
“‘There ain’t no harm in Logan,’ says he, ‘there’s not the kick of a
flea in him; you mind your business,’ says he, ‘and I’ll tend to mine.
Whach you want putting suspicions in chaps’ heads for?’ says he.
“‘Well, I’ve said what I’ve said,’ says Bone, ‘and I’m not going to
say no more.’
“Then he goes off.
“Meanwhile, those island bucks had got to fitting things together in
their minds, and they’d got to connecting pearls with sticks of
tobacco and trade goods, and they’d got to recognise Johnstone as boss
and owner of the pearls and goods. They’d named Johnstone ‘the fat
one’ and they’d labelled Logan ‘the one with teeth,’ and the
specifications fitted, for Johnstone weighed all two hundred and
fifty, and Logan was a dentist’s sign when the grin was on his face,
which was frequent.
“And so things goes on, the Kanakas diving and bringing up shell and
the trade goods sinking till soon there was scarcely none left to pay
the divers, and level with that was the fac’ that they’d collared
enough pearls to satisfy reasonable chaps.
“One day Bone comes back from the diving and there wasn’t any
Johnstone.