Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/135

Rh Once, when the planter had been caught by a severe squall off the reef, and he and his Kanakas had had to battle for hours in a tempestuous sea before regaining their anchorage just beneath the bungalow, Chester began to show the first signs of being disheartened.

"It looks to me as though the two pearls I found first were just a lucky chance," he declared. "If this goes on much longer I'm afraid I shall have to give it up."

The two men were sitting on the veranda, smoking, after a belated evening meal.

"Give it another month's trial, anyway," Keith urged. "Fate plays funny tricks on you while you're pearling. Shift your ground a bit. You may have better luck elsewhere."

"I have shifted it," Chester replied. "I'm getting shell now off the northwest of the reef, and maybe that may pan out better."

"I remember once," said Keith, "and not so very long ago either, there was a man called Ellis started pearling at an island named Teipui in the New Hebrides. He was a trader, and there wasn't much about the South Seas that fellow didn't know. As a rule a trader in these parts is a natural born crook, otherwise he wouldn't be able to do much business. But Ellis was as straight as a die. I've known him for a good many years, and I've never heard any man dare to suggest that he would lie or