hts upon the spring of cool, clear water near which the former
residents of the atoll had built the cabin. Then, too, she had found
that there was considerable tropical fruit growing in the place, and
she made such havoc among it that Captain Bergen felt impelled to
caution her, if she should become sick on their hands, she would be
apt to fare ill, for they had little medicine at command.

While she was thus engaged, captain and mate were reclining on the
ground, in the shade of the palm-trees. They spoke only now and then,
but there was a peculiar expression on their faces as they watched the
schooner gradually disappearing in the distance, for it was a long
while in sight. The time came at last, however, when even their
straining vision could not detect the faintest resemblance to a sail
in the horizon, though it was still visible, as a matter of course,
through their glasses.

"I believe she is gone," said Storms, looking toward the captain.

"Yes; I see nothing of her."

"Then it's about time to shake."

The two brawny hands clasped, and the friends greeted each other with
remarkable cordiality; and, as they did so, they laughed heartily, and
the mate almost shouted:

"Captain, but it was a good trick!"

"So it was; and I give you the credit of inventing it. I never would
have thought of it."

"Shake again; and now to work."

The mate had deposited some of the oysters brought up on the bank, and
they were carefully opened. They were eight in number, and there was
not found a single pearl among them.

In all probability the entire lot which were carried away upon the
schooner were not worth as much as the same quantity of bivalves from
Chesapeake Bay. In short, this was not the pearl-oyster bed which had
brought the two friends the greater part of the way around the globe.
Suspecting--or, rather, knowing--the evil intentions of the mutineers,
Abe Storms proposed the ruse, by which the visit was made to the wrong
place. The mutineers themselves were outwitted, and, under the belief
that they were carrying away a cargo of fabulous wealth, they did not
wait to make an examination of the mollusks until they were well out
to sea.

When they should open and examine them they were not likely to suspect
the trick, but would think that the whole journey was a failure, and
the three left on the island were, in reality, worse off than
themselves.

And yet the true bed of oyster-pearls remained to be visited.