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Rh without enough success to keep your enthusiasm up to the scratch."

"Why," said Steel, stroking his moustache reflectively, "you spoke about a couple of bigger pearls than these, a few minutes ago. Would you—would you care to let me have a squint at them? What I mean is, I'm always open to take a little flutter if there's a chance of it turning out well. I don't know that I'd care to invest anything in the plantation on Tao Tao, because just between you and me there's a mighty lot of work to be done on the place, and though you might make a living here, I really don't think there's a fortune in it, as there is in some places."

"I know it," Chester admitted reluctantly.

"But so far as the pearling is concerned," Steel went on, "I might be induced to stop here for a few months, at any rate, and ascertain what there was to it. I'd want to see the two big pearls first, though. Even if we couldn't arrange a sort of partnership, by the way, I might take them off your hands at a reasonable price. I'm in the South Seas on business, y'know."

Chester rose, with a curious sense of elation. "’Scuse me, I'll be back in half a minute," he said.

"Everything comes to him who waits!" he added to himself, going into his bedroom. "Now who on earth would have imagined an offer like this would drop clean out of the heav—"