Chapter IV

“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.