CHAPTER XXVI
THE PEARL OF TAO TAO
NEVER had Tao Tao looked more perfect than in the golden dawn when, for the last time, Chester rang the great gong on the veranda, to assemble the blacks for their journey over to their new employers on the island of Tamba. The sun had barely made its appearance before the labourers were stowed, a solid mass of chattering humanity, on the deck of the Kestrel. The sea was by now almost calm again, and before a spanking breeze the ketch glided out over the blue water. Only Maromi and Peter Pan remained behind, to assist Keith and the girl in the removal of cases and bundles to the beach, ready for storing on the Kestrel when she returned. Chester had promised to be back before noon, and by the time the white sails of the vessel became visible again everything that was intended for the Kestrel had been piled on the beach.
"She's coming along like a race horse. Another hour and she will be here," said Joan, allowing her eyes to linger on familiar scenes for the last time.
Keith was squatting on the sand, cutting at a plug of tobacco contentedly and poking the shreds into the bowl of his pipe.
"It's difficult to realize that we're going to quit," he said. "Do you know, I've gotten so used to the place that I believe I shall hate to go."
He had struck a match and was putting it near the tobacco when his eyes fell on a barrel twenty yards away. A puzzled frown flitted across his face. The match remained in midair, and the flame died.
"I don't believe Chester ever took the trouble to go through that last lot of shell he fetched from the reef," he said. "I'll go and see."
Joan walked over with him. The barrel was half full of oysters which were in perfect condition for working on.
"I don't like to be lazy," said the man. "You sit to windward and you'll never know they're here. I ought to get at least ten dollars' worth of seeds out of this lot."
Lying on the ground near was the tin can which they had always used for baling water over the shell as they searched, and Keith began to work, jesting with Joan as he did so. He had thrown away the contents of scores of oysters when his fingers encountered something hard and round. Anticipating that it was a pebble, he was preparing to flick it away with the blade of his knife after examining it, when he uttered a cry of surprise.
"What is it?" said Joan, rising and running toward him.
In the centre of his palm lay a pearl, twice the size of any that had yet been found near Tao Tao, and of faultless shape and lustre.
"It's—it's a great find!" said Keith slowly. "Joan, that little bit of a thing is worth as much as I should draw in wages as a mate in about two solid years. Dearest, wrap it up in your handkerchief. I'm going to go through the rest of this shell carefully."
"You surely don't expect to find another?"
"Who knows?" said Keith, busy once more. "It just occurs to me that this shell didn't come from the place where Chester has put in so much work. If you remember," he went on, clenching his pipe tightly between his teeth, a trick of his when he was keenly intent in what he was doing, "the last time Chester was after shell he tried the north- east side of the reef for the first time. The water is deeper there, and sometimes it's marvelous what a difference—Jumping Jerusalem! Here's another!" he shouted.
The ketch was now at her moorings, and the anchor went overboard with a splash, but Keith was too wrapped up in what he was doing to pay much attention to Chester's arrival. The second pearl, although not of the same size as the first, was a particularly beautiful specimen, which would, alone, have repaid them for weeks of toil.
When Chester landed he was met at the water's edge by his sister.
"Come, come," she said, grasping his hand and tugging him up the beach.
"Well, what is it?" Chester asked, laughing and running with Joan.
"Pearls!" the girl said excitedly, and then, remembering that she had the larger one stowed away in her handkerchief, stopped and displayed it to her brother.
Chester Trent's lips took on the shape of a figure "o," but he was too impressed to whistle.
"Two of them, there are," said Joan. "The other isn't quite as—"
She was interrupted by an excited cry from Keith, toward whom his companions raced.
"Darn me if there wasn't still another in the very last shell!" he said.
The latest "find" was fully equal to the one before.
"Now what d'you think of that for a day's haul?" asked the sailor with a broad smile.
"Why, Keith, old son, it's—it's wonderful." Chester was still in a daze as he looked at the gleaming pellets in his hand.
"Not a bit. It's just the luck of pearling. Shift your ground a bit and you may fall right into 'em—as you have done, evidently."
Chester took off his pith helmet, ran his fingers through his hair and developed a comical expression.
"This sort of makes a difference in our plans," he said, looking from one to the other.
"You've got your divers on board still?" Keith asked.
Chester nodded. The same thought had inevitably occurred to him.
"And you know exactly where you found this last lot of shell?"
"Certainly, and there's plenty of time to have another shot there to-day."
Five minutes later the ketch was once more standing out toward the reef, with the whale-boat trailing astern. Joan, also, had now caught the pearl fever, and there was a strained intensity about the white members of the party when the Kestrel was anchored. For two hours hardly a word was spoken while shell was brought to the surface and examined with minute care. Evening was already beginning to approach when Chester gave a shout.
"Here's one," he cried, picking out a pearl from the heart of an oyster, "a pearl fit for a queen to wear! Keith, do you realize that we've struck a fortune?"
"Sure, there's a pile of money here, and I'd like to be the first to congratulate you."
"Me! You mean us! You've got to have your hack out of this, laddie. There's enough for all three of us. Joan and I would never have seen a penny back if it hadn't been for you."
"Well, money has its uses," said Keith, "but to tell you the truth, Chester, I'm thinking less about that just now than of an engagement I've got in Sydney." He looked meaningly toward Joan.
"Tell you what," said Chester. "Somebody has to run over to Sydney with all these pearls, but wild horses wouldn't tear me away from this reef for the present. I'm going to settle down on Tao Tao like a lonely hermit for a while. I can manage quite well with the whale-boat, if you two go off in the Kestrel. Put me ashore, and I'll look after myself till you come back, but don't be too long."
"I wish you would come, too, Chester," Joan pleaded.
"Sorry, sis," her brother replied firmly, "but Old Man Opportunity is knocking at our door as I've never heard him knock before. I'll soon have the bungalow fixed up again. There's not a thing to detain you, once you get your trunk on board."
Midnight was drawing near, however, before a sufficient degree of comfort had been re-established at the house to satisfy Joan, and then, after final instructions to Maromi concerning her brother's creature comforts in her absence, she announced her readiness to start.
"Good luck go with you," said Chester, as he went down with them to the star-lit beach. "Here are the pearls we've found to-day, Keith, and the seeds also. I leave the sale of 'em entirely to your discretion."
From a pocket he took a small wooden box with a metal clasp. This he handed to Joan.
"It's the best I can do for you as a wedding present, sis," he said. "Now be off, the pair of you, and come back making a noise like two bloated capitalists, because I hope to have hauled a lot of our wealth up by then."
Joan lifted the lid of the box. Nestling under a wad of cotton wool were the two pearls that had been lost and found again, the pearls that had inspired Chester to perseverance.
An ebony-hued Kanaka held the wheel and cast an occasional eye aloft at the taut sails. Forward, another black lay on the deck, head propped up on elbows, staring out over the limitless Pacific, and wondering what had happened to a brown-eyed girl far away whom he had promised to return to some day. That could not be for another season, because there was yet a full year for his contract with big Marster Trent to run. He marvelled vaguely at the freakish notions of white men in taking the Kestrel to the white man's country such a distance away. He understood that they would not be back before another young moon had shown itself.
Dipping down, on the rim of the water, lay Tao Tao, only a vague blur now in the distance. Joan, with her heart beating a shade faster than usual, and held closely to Keith, watched the outline of the island grow dim.
"Are you happy, dear?" he asked her softly.
"I never thought there could be such happiness," she said. "It wasn't plantations or pearls or anything like that which brought me to the South Seas, Keith. It was to meet you that I came."
"And it was for a pearl that I came, dearest," said Keith. "The most wonderful pearl in all the world. The Pearl of Tao Tao."
Her lips were near. He glanced toward the helmsman.
At that instant the ebony-hued Kanaka was looking up at the sails.
THE END