Harry frankly told him, adding, "We have, I believe, obtained all the
pearls the natives had collected."

"Where those came from, others may be got," observed the skipper. "I
know a trick or two to make the natives work for me; and I should be
obliged to you, captain, if you'd show me some of those you have got,
that I may see whether they are worth having."

Harry, not liking to refuse, as it would have shown want of confidence
in his visitor, told me to bring up one of the cases, as also some
specimens of the oyster-shells. I did not think it necessary to select
the finest. When Captain Myers saw them his eyes glittered.

"I did not think there were such pearls to be got in these parts," he
observed. "Have you many of them, captain?"

"Enough to satisfy me," answered Harry. "Indeed, as I said before, I do
not think there are many more to be procured at present."

"We shall see about that," remarked Captain Myers, glancing his eyes
round the deck. They fell, I observed, on the guns, and he evidently
noted each man of our crew, who had come up to have a talk with the
strangers alongside. Harry had not invited any of the latter on board,
and I guessed had no intention of doing so.

Captain Myers waited, as if expecting to be asked below to take
something, as is usual when one skipper visits another; but Harry, who
did not like his appearance more than I had done, apologised by saying
that, as the cabin was devoted to the use of the ladies, he could not
invite strangers into it; but not wishing altogether to be inhospitable,
he ordered the steward to bring up some wine and spirits and biscuits,
which were placed in a tray on the companion-hatch. Our visitor,
without ceremony, poured out for himself half a tumbler of rum, to which
he added a very small quantity of water.

"I like a nip neat at this time of the morning," he observed, as he
gulped it down. "It sets a fellow up. Well, as you have got ladies
aboard, I won't trouble you with my company any longer," he added,
taking another look round the deck. "Good morning to you," and without
more ado he stepped back into his boat.

I saw him surveying the schooner as he pulled away. As soon as he was
gone, Sam Pest came aft.

"He's the very chap I thought he was, and as neat a villain as ever
lived," he said. "I knew him at a glance, but I do not know if he knew
me. If he did, he did not show it; but that's just like him, for he is
as cunning as ne