The Pearl Without Price

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 286, 3 December 1931, Page 22

The Pearl Without Price

It was a dingy, smoke-grimed enclosrnro consisting of a few yards of patchy turf and some struggling plants, which, dignified 'by the name of "Public Gardens," formed a sort of oasis amidst a welter of sordid streets and towering warehouses. Between these one might occasionally glimpse the tops of masts and funnels, while at frequent intervals there came the deep 'bellow of steamers' syrens and the shrill hooting of the river tugs. Since a good half-hour must elapse before I was due to keep tho business appointment which had -brought me to this part of the world, I sat down on one of the benches. Close at hand, some urchins who had 'been playing a noisy game of "tag," paused to stare at me. Why, I don't know, unless it was, perhaps, that I happened to look prosperous in a neighbourhood which prosperity rarely visits, and in which it never stays. The urchins soon had their fill of me and returned to their game. Then it was that a man of seafaring appearance who occupied the other end of the bench, addressed me. "A line day, sir for the time of the year," he said. "Yes," I answered politely, "a very fine day." "Not ,, went on the sea-faring man, ''but what it couldn't bear to be ■warmer. Leastways, not to my way of thinking." "Perhaps," I suggested, "you're used to warmer climates." ".Aye, mister, I am that," he replied. "His. months ago I was in the South Seas. On a pearling schooner. And doing well. Then I got news to say how my old mother was dying. T was in Suva at the time. But what with the pay I'd saved and the bit of money I borrowed, 1 got back to England." "Maybe I don't look a blinkin' millionaire, and come to that, I'm not. But I got the value of three hundred quid on me this very moment —in pearls. ,.

"Pearls V I repeated,

"Aye, pearls. Poached pearls, mister, which is to say that they wore got without a license. Every pearler in the Pacific has to have a license, see? British, Australian, French, Just according to where lie's working. And yon can't dispose of pearls to any regular dealer unless you've got a license to show—not out there, you can't. If you try it on, you'll toe reported to the authorities, ahd that means the jug. One, two, maybe three years. Not but ■what you can't sell poached pearls, you cad —but only at the buyer's price. It's take it or leave it'with him, sec? "Mind you," he went on, "I'm not a pearl poacher, nor did I set out for to get these pearls. It all come about through a goat. It's a queer story, mister, and maybe you'd like to hear it if you're not in a hurry. "I was bo'sun on a schooner called the White Lady. We were mostly engaged in the copra trade with a bit of pearling thrown in. On the trip I'm telling you aibout, we'd left Suva for the Marquesas, but on the way we put into a little island called Tubatti. The storekeeper there owed the skipper for a load of copra he'd taken on a previous trip and the skipper thought he might as well collect the money. Well, we put in as I say and ashore goes the skipper. And presently back ho comes looking as mad as a hatter with a billy goat in tow. For the storekeeper had gone bankrupt and all he had to offer our old man in the way of money was this here old goat. "So that's all there was to that, and two or three weeks later we made Nukahiva, which is the chief town and port of the Marquesas. A more deadly place you never struck, for it swarms with no-no flies, which aren't so much flies as stings with wings on them, We put in there for water and provisions, and while -we were talcing these on board, the skipper asks the French commandant to tea, "So he came, did the French commandant, a funny little chap with a face all whiskers. I never seen a man with so much whiskers before, Maybe they kept the no-no flies off him,for I can't see ■why a fellow should grow all them whiskers unless they was some good to him. What must he do but-take a fancy to the skipper's goat. What's more he offered to exchange three bottles of the best French brandy for it. And the skipper clinched, he being strongly partial to brandy. "All right. We sailed out of Nukahiva without the goat and with two bottles .of French brandy —the skipper having already got rid of one. And we hadn't barely dropped the land, when the weather changed suddenly, like it does in them latitudes, so that two hours later we were in the teeth of a

proper rip-snorter. Mind you, I seen some weather in my time, but this beat anything in my experience. And in the middle of it, when we were staggering under bare poles with the seas pouring over us, up comes the skipper out of his cabin. "There was no need to ask where them two other bottles of brandy had gone. I was at the wheel and daren't leave it for a second in case we broached to. And if we'd done that, it would have meant Kingdom Come and mighty short notice at that. So I yells to the ■ mate by way of -warning him to move the skipper down below again, for I could see he'd be overboard in a brace of shakes. "And he was. Before the mate, who •was right for'ard, could haul himself aft a wave swept over us. I thought we'd gone for sure, but we hadn't — not that time. But the skipper had though, When we righted ourselves there wasn't a sign of him. So that was the end of him. He died happy, for how else should a man die with two bottles of the best French brandy with him? "That hurricane lasted all through the night, and, though it moderated towards morning, there was a mighty heavy sea running, and all the canvas we dared hoist was a bit of a jib just to steady her. And then, around about four bells —which would be about ten o'clock shore time —someone yelled 'Breakers Ahead!' "I was at the wheel. I heard Bill Masters tho mate, shout to put it hard over, and then something seemed to lift me clean off my feet, and the next thing I call to mind was finding myself lying on a stretch of sand. I must have been lying there some time, I reckon, for my clothes were bone dry. Anyway, I wasn't dead, which was more than I'd expected, so I sat up and had a look round. All along the beach were odds and ends of wreckage —spars, rigging, broken timber and what not — which was all that was left of the White Lady. And on the landward eide as far as I could see, was nothing but sand dunes with clumps of tough-looking grass and lots of little prickly bushes. "Most people think of the Pacific Islands, as covered with palms and hibiscus, sort of little paradises, and some of them are. But this wasn't one of them, not by a long shot it wasn't. An uglier, nastier, more miserable place I'd never set 'eyes on. And flat. The highest sandhill I. could see wasn't more than six or seven feet above the level. It might, by , the look of things, have been a bit of the Sahara Desert —you know what I mean.

"Well, I'd scarcely done taking all this in when I saw something moving close to the water's edge. I went down to see what it was, and I'm blessed if Bill Masters didn't crawl out from under what was left of one of the schooner's •boats.

"'S'truth, Bill, you're a lucky one,' says I. 'I didn't reckon to see you again, not in this world.'

"He got on his feet, Bill did, and shook himself.

"'Didn't you hear mo eay for to put the wheel hard over ?' he asks,

" 'And so I did,' I tells him, tut she didn't have time to answer her helm before she got piled on the reef.' " 'Well, it don't make much odds now, either way,' says Bill. 'Have you got anything to drink? I'm as dry,' he says 'as a foul block. I got a pay-day thirst and no mistake.'

" 'So far as this here stinking little island's concerned, there don't look to be enough fresh water for.a Chink to wash his face in,' says I, but wo might take a look round to see if any of the schooner's water breakers have got washed ashore.' "And so we did, but all we found was a case of bully-beef, a small keg of rum, and about half a barrel of ship's biscuit all sodden with sea-water.

" 'We got to find water somewhere,' says Bill. 'Maybe there's a spring or a fresh-water stream on the island, though it don't look very promising, I allow.'

"And it wasn't. We tramped all over that blinking little island, from north to south and from cast to west, but not a sign of water could we find. Everywhere it was sand; sand and coarse grass and them prickly little bushes. There wasn't even a bird to be seen — nothing except sand-fleas and stinging Hies. They found us all right, so they did, and by the way they settled on us they were afraid there wouldn't be enough to go round. "There was nothing for it but to cat bully and drink rum —we had to drink something —and the biscuit was thatsodden with sea-water, it was like eating salt. So we gave that up. But the more rum we drank, the worse our thirsts got. It was like being on fire, only inside, see? It was like a nightmare, for the more we drank the thirstier we got, and the thirstier we got, the more we drank. "Later on, we both crawled out on the reef in the hope that maybe a waterbreaker had been washed ashore up there. But all we found, except for a lot of wreckage, were some oysters. Just under the water, they were, and whore it was shallow' we managed to get up about a score between us, thinking they'd be a change from the bully, which they were. And the first one we opened had a pearl in it. "A pearl, mind you. And so had the next one. Eleven pearls we got out of them oysters. And we'd have given them all for a drink of water. Aye, for the smell of a drink of water. I don't doubt we could have got as many again, and more But what was the use? What was the use of pearls to men who could hardly Speak for thirst? "Bill flicked the first one into the water as if it had been a marble. But I stopped him from doing likewise with the rest.

" 'Better keep them,' says I. 'They'll he handy to have by us if ever we get rescued from this blistering little island.'

"'Aye, if we do.' says he. 'But we're right out of the shipping track, mate. A ship don't pass in sight of this little hell, not one in a blue moon. We'll die here, mate, that's what we'll do. , "We did'nt go after any more oysters, for c-ating them only mada our thirsts worse. So we just drank rum and chewed bully. "And then one day a water-breaker got washed ashore. We dragged it above highwatcr mark and then I picked up a lump of coral for to smash the head in. " 'Don't do that, you fool,' says Bill, 'you'll waste all the water. Leave it to me and I'll bore a hole with my knife.' "But I saw through his little game, see? He wanted all the water for himself, Bill did. And, like as not, when lie started boring with the knife, he'd split opan all the staves. " 'You let that breaker alone/ I tells him. 'You stand off and let me fix it.' "He made a slash at me with his knife and I heaved a lump of coral at him, but we both missed each other. And we sat clown, one on each side of that Avaterbreaker, watching, I don't know how long we sat there. Hours, days, maybe. "Properly mad, was Bil. Mad with rum and mad with thirst. And every time I reached out to.that breaker he drew his knife on me And every, time lie reached for it.l picked up my lump of coral.

"But he drew his knife on me once too often. I closed with him, and we rolled over and over on the sand. Sometimes he had tho knife, and sometimes I got it from him. Then wo staggered to our feet and went for each other. It was him or me now, see? "We went down several times. The last time I was on top of him. When I got up, ho did'nt. He lay there as limp as a coil of wet rope. And I knew lie was dead, and no two ways about it. He'd signed off, he had,for good and all. He'd drawn his pay all right, see? "Know anything about pearle?" he asked. "I'm no judge of pearls, if that's what you mean," I told him. "Then I'll tell ,you something, mister, something that isn't generally known outside the trade," said the seafaring man. "If ever you want to tell the difference between a real 'pearl and one that isn't—just touch it with your tongue. A real pearl's got a sort of roughness to it, whereas a faked one is as smooth as glass. Just, put one of these tongue and you'll see what I mean." I took the pearl he offered, and pretended to put it against my tongue —pretended, because the fingers which had held"it definitely needed;a wash. "That's so," I remarked, untruthfully, as I returned it to him. To my astonishment, he waved it aside. "You keep it, mister, for a souvenir, as the saying is. You been sort of sympathetic like, and sympathy's a rare thing these days' rarer than pearls— leaetways, so I've found," he said. I was touched and exceedingly embarrassed. The thing for all I knew, might bo worth three or four: pounds, or even more. I couldn't afford to pay its value, still less could I accept it as a gift. "Look here," I said, "it's very good of you, but, really, I can't —" "(Meaning," he cut in, with a note of amused contempt in hie voice, "as you're a gent and I'm just a blinkin' sailor man?" . , ~. "No, no," I assured him, hurriedly. "But you can't —I mean, —" I feverishly drew out my wallet and extracted a pound note. "Just to show there's no offence, l becrged as I hold it out. For a moment he hesitated. Ihen he laughed and stretched out his hand.

"All right," lie said. "If so be it makes He stopped abruptly as a large hand descended on his shoulder and remained there. "Trying tho old game again, Jim? enquired a pleasant voice. I looked round to see a big man with a good-humoured face standing just behind tho seat. Ho had,"plain clothes oflicer" stamped all over him and he was regarding the seafaring man with a faintly amused smile. "I didn't think you'd start so soon after your last little stretch," ho went on. "And the same old yarn and all. Iye been listening behind the bushes. Well, come along." The seafaring man rose to his teet without a murmur. "Here," I said, exhibiting the pearl, "you'd better—" "That's all right, sir," interrupted the officer with a grin, "he'll buy another sixpenny packet of 'em at the_ store when he comes out —won't you, Jim?'