A DEAL IN PEARLS

Otago Witness, Issue 3555, 2 May 1922, Page 58

A DEAL IN PEARLS

By Te Pana,

(All Rights Reserved.) “You can’t be too careful in the Islands these times,” said Mr Perisher, as he pushed his empty glass across the bar, and pulled thouglittully with fat wristed hand at the lank moustache that hides his want of chin. “That’s why— ,” I ventured. “Yes,” said Mr Perisher, with a solemn light in his bleary, blue-grey eyes, moving his head expressively and breatning intimately at me. “Trusted me fellow-men ” lie leaned over the bar and thought visibly on the subject of my confidence. I was relieved at last by his nod of approval. ' Once I was as near as that,” he flicked his fingers, “to a fortune.” “So near as that?” He looked at me. “So near as that. Fact is ” He looked about him, brought his face close to mine, lowered his voice, and fenced off an unsympathetic world with a grimy hand. "Yes,” he whispered, “I found a treasure.” I became attentive to Mr Perisher’s bodily needs, and presently he came back to earth. “Yes, a treasure down there in tile South Sea Islands. Masters and me were together at the time. Doing a bit o’ trading. We had a cutter, and Masters was captain, and me the crew. We were pounding along one night with the old hooker half awash most of the time. “Old Masters stuck to the wheel, and salt got in his nose and throat and nearly choked him. Once he bellowed down to me that he could hear breakers pounding somewhere in the distance. And the beggar was right, too. Next thing I knew the hooker leaped like a hurdler, there was a harsh grinding as if rows of teeth were gnawing at the keel, and a sharp coral point, armed with millions of rocky claws, came clean through the bottom. We had arrived at Hafoa.

“Masters went berserk. He spoke into the night, choice pieces of blasphemy shot through with the lurid oaths of a sailorman. He called on something to damn the waves, the reefs and the black night. Eventually I pacified him with whisky, and by morning, when the cutter had pounded itself to a stack of floorboards, he was quite rational again. “The natives ashore did their little best for us. They gave us a hut to live in, brought us queer food mixtures, and made noises intimating that thev were pleased to entertain us. We were welcome to eat of the locusts and dubious wild honey until the missionary schooner arrived about a moon hence. “Now this Hafoa was just a bit of coral reef flung up out of the sea, and at its widest part about half a mile across. A few palms sprouted here and there, and a small lagoon teeming with fish fed the crowd that scratched for an existence. I developed the habit of going across to old Turangi’s hut and drinking kava with him to kill time. He was a leather-faced old sinner, and head man on the bit of dirt. Seemed to take a fancy to me dating from the time he passed our hut and heard a cork pop from the last of the salvage from the wreck. He would always give me the best mat to sit on, see that the girl kept the fan busy over my head, and generally played up to me. “One night I spotted the old heathen to be labouring under the stress-of some great emotion. I knew it wasn’t fleas. Just before I’d settled the last of the kava he sidled over to me, and fiddling about in his vala—loin cloth —produced a pearl. It was a beauty. Even in the rough it glistened with a silvery sheen throwing out light rays like a diamond. He handed it across with the remark, ‘My love for you.’ I took the centre stage, and, breathing hard told him what a fine old bird he was, what a charming ladv the gods had endowed him with, and vowed that in tile course of a misspent lifetime I’d never met such progeny as the fifteen who called him 'Dad. Then he sprang it on me.

“You catch’m gin?” lie inquired. ’Spose ’m you give it bottle I give it pearl. Plenty pearl Hafoa. I show m.’ He jabbered some noises at a girl. who promptly disappeared to return with a camphor-wood box. Turangi dived into the interior, 'drew out a small hag, and spilled the contents on ilie floor. It was a sight for tired eyes. Pearls were there in all sizes, shapes, and surfaces. ‘What you tink, ell?’ he asked. “I could see the situation required some handling. 1 talked with the old blighter, and in great detail expressed my sorrow at being short for the moment of juniper berry juice. It was merely a matter of time. Before I left him I had arranged that if the missionary schooner dropped me in a spot where fermented and spirituous liquore were obtainable I would return with a cargo for him. I wanted a few pearls on account wherewith to make Ihe necessary purchases, but the heathen didn’t love me to that extent.

“Masters threw cold water oil the scheme when I explained it to him. He confined Hafoa to Gehenna, and he’d be damned if he would risk making another trip to this accursed hole. Masters was not what you would call a genial soul. Right up to the day the mission boat dropped her anchors off the reef he mooned and snorted in liis whiskers. And when we left all he said to the natives howling out their farewell songs was, ‘To hell wi’ the lot o’ ve.’

“The schooner dropped me at Neiafu, and I came down the gang-plank with a' pocket full of hvmnbooks, a swag of blessings, and a pearl of great price as my assets. Masters scowled at me from the rails, but checked his profane parting gift, because he wanted a passage back to Nukualofa. I saw his whiskers trembling violently, and quite understood his feelings. “Once on shore Tommy Ah Fu fixed me up in the matter of the pearl. Of course, he robbed me, but parted with sufficient cash, nevertheless, to buy me a few cases of assorted liquor. I prowled around the beach and eventually put it over a native skipper, who guaranteed to land me dry shod on Hafoa. “He was as good as his word. Within a week the cutter was riding safely in the lagoon, and Turangi and his menials were leaping about the beach in high glee. Even in the distance I could see his wicked eyes shining with pleasure and hear his tongue click-clicking in anticipation of my thirst quencher. “Once started, it didn’t take long to transact the business. I unloaded several cases marked ‘First Quality Corned Beef,’ knocked the lids off, and showed him the array of bottles in their straw capsules, lie, in turn, gave a good imitation of a sleight-of-hand artist. He produced the bag of pearls, then we embraced each other, shook hands, and James Perisher stepped aboard his lugger with a small fortune tucked in the slack of his dirtv pants. “On reaching Neiafu again I didn’t trouble Ah Fu to put a price on my wares. As a matter of fact I never so much as mentioned my streak of <rood fortune to any of the thieving crowd on the beach. Instead, I did a little honest toil weighing copra, and all the time that I sweat in the sunshine, I was painting mental pictures on what I would do when I realised on the pearls. Oh. yes, I planned great things, and when the New Zealand boat drifted in I drew my little bit of pay, booked a passage to New Zealand, and raised my tattered hat in farewell to the South Sea Islands.” “And you went gay; met a man who introduced you to the high life and a racehorse trainer; lost the lot—and came home again,” I suggested. ‘Well, not exactly,’ he replied. Arriving in Auckland, I had a hair-cut, and went along to a jeweller’s, a fine place with blue plush fittings. I explained my business, and in the office tipped the pearls on the table. There they gleamed in all their beauty, and the ’man commenced fingering them with a reverent touch. ‘ Wonderful, wonderful.’ He dived for a power-glass, screwed it in his eye. and delved about peering closely at the gems. Then he looked up. ‘Wonderful, wonderful,’ he repeated. ‘The finest Ive seen in an experience with pearls covering thirty years. A first-class imitation so good that for a moment it completely deceived me . . .’ “Mr Perrisher’s voice sank to a whis--per, and once more he spoke behind his hand. His manner was suddenly suffused with a positive joy. 'You can’t be too careful in the Islands. . . .’ Still Ive often wondered what old Turangi thought about that bottled decoction of burnt sugar and water.”