J. Allan Dunn

“ She reached for the bag but drew back her hand as Sayers clapped his big palm over the top of the calabash.
“Hold on a minute,” he said. “There's no use beating about the bush. When your schooner got wrecked, miss, and all hands lost, I was the only one who found out where you and your father were stranded—lost in the middle of the ocean. You'd both of you have rotted if it hadn't been for me. I got up this expedition and Tuan Yuck there financed it. Young Galahad there,” he nodded at Chalmers, “was navigator. We were all in the deal. ”

“ Hamaku muttered something and Tomi laughed. Chalmers took the men up smartly.
“What was that?” he demanded.
“Big Boss speak you eat along schooner this morning,” replied Hamaku, a spice of impudence in tone and look.
“What Big Boss? You sabe plenty I your boss?”
“Tuan Yuck he speak you boss along ship maybe. He boss along land. We along land now.”
Chalmers looked at the man. The native's eyes shifted.
“Tuan Yuck he plenty big kahuna (wizard) ,” he said, half surly, half apologetic. ”

“ It cost money and we expect returns on the investment.”
“That seems only fair,” said the girl, trembling a little as she sensed the growing excitement. “How much do you want?”
“The expenses have been about two thousand dollars,” broke in Chalmers. “The schooner can be resold for something. Give these men five thousand apiece for their investment returns, as they call them, and that will end it.”
Sayers laughed loudly. Tuan Yuck's eyes danced behind their slitted lids like a mocking devil's. ”

“ He used his own belt to truss the other's ankles and leaned Tuan Yuck helplessly against a tree. “That's all over,” said Chalmers. “Now for Sayers. Bravo for you, Miss Denman.”
Even as he spoke the girl swayed, her eyes closed, the pistol dropped from her hand and she swooned. Chalmers caught her about the waist as she fell. Under the table Sayers was dragging himself up to his knees. Down the beach Hamaku and Tomi had jumped into the whaleboat and were pulling furiously for the schooner. ”

“ His voice had lost its silkiness and sounded sharply vibrant. “Pearl oysters are sick oysters and the sickness often runs in colonies or patches. The lagoon may yield as many more like these, or less. Or it may hold pearls to almost fabulous values, like the lagoon of Faleita where Nacre Williams harvested over four million dollars before he stripped it. Lagoons are lotteries.”
He replaced the pearls gently, one by one, in the little bag and placed it on top of the seed pearls in the calabash in the center of the table. ”