this
pearl hunt, and fail to find her parents?"

He took but a minute to consider the question, when he answered:

"It can never make any difference to Inez herself, for her sweet face
and winning ways will secure her a welcome and a home in a hundred
different places."

While the mate was indulging in these fancies and reveries, Brazzier
and Redvignez were holding an important conference forward.

"I'm sure we won't have much further to sail," observed the Spaniard,
with a slightly broken accent. "We're in the latitude of the
Paumotus."

"Have you ever been there?" asked his companion.

"No; but I know something about them, and then you had a glimpse of
the chart, which they're continually looking at, and I'm certain from
what you said that the particular spot we're after isn't far off."

"I conclude you're right, more from the way they're acting than
anything else. I wish I could get hold of that chart."

"What would you do?" asked Redvignez, with a significant side-glance
at his companion.

"What would I do? Why, I wouldn't wait--that's all."

"I don't see as it will make much difference," said the other, in the
most matter-of-fact voice, as he coolly puffed his pipe. "We might as
well take them there and make sure of the spot, before we knock them
in the head."

Brazzier gave a contemptuous sniff and a vicious puff of his pipe, and
remarked:

"Did you ever see two such fools, Redvig?" He continued, with mock
solemnity: "Beware of the temptations of wealth. Behold those two
specimens, who have come all the way from Boston to fish for pearls in
the Paumotu Islands. Some old sailor had the secret, and told the
captain about it, and he has told his friend, and they have formed a
partnership and hired us to go with them to dredge up the oysters."

"What is there so foolish in all that?" asked the Spaniard, with a
grin, which showed his white teeth in the moonlight.

"Nothing; for you or I would have done the same had we been placed in
their shoes. But we would have shown more sense than they. They
believe we do not suspect what their business is; and yet we both
understand the whole thing. Here we are within a few hours' sail of
the spot, and what's to be done?"

The Spaniard indulged in a light laugh, and replied:

"To think that we should consent to take twenty-five dollars a month,
while they scooped in their thousands--their millions--it strikes me
sometimes as the greatest joke I ever heard. Bu