op of oysters was large, and many pearls were
found. The gems which were to go to the Sultan were superb, and there
would be enough of them to make a truly royal necklace.

One night about six months after the "macasla" festival I woke suddenly
from a sound sleep, with that strange feeling which sometimes comes to
one at night, that I was not alone. While I lay listening and peering
into the darkness of the room in which I slept, I heard a soft splash
in the water beneath me, such as a big fish might have made if he had
come to the surface, and diving back had struck the water with his
tail. It had been high tide soon after midnight, and the water was
not more than three or four feet beneath me. I listened a long time,
but could hear nothing more, and finally went to sleep again, deciding
that the splash I had heard had been made by a shark, and that some
noise which he had made before that had been what had roused me.

Any further thought of my disturbance which I might have had was
driven from my mind in the morning, when I came out and found the
community in a state of violent commotion.

The "gobierno," the house in which the "Gobernadorcillo" lived, had
been robbed in the night, and a bag containing about half the Sultan's
pearls was gone. The government official, along with several other
residents, lived on shore. The houses which, like mine, were built over
the water, were generally inhabited by the divers and their families.

The voice of the "Gobernadorcillo" was not the only one raised in
lamentation that morning, by any means, for he had very promptly
begun a search for the missing jewels by beating his servants and
every one connected with the official residence, within an inch of
their lives. When this did not produce the pearls he extended the
process to such other unfortunate residents of the town as fell
under his suspicion. I really think the only thing which kept him
from killing a few of the wretches was the fear that he might by some
chance include the thief in the number, and thus destroy all hope of
getting back the stolen gems.

No man, woman or child was allowed to leave the village, and so
thorough was the system by which one of those deputy tax collectors
kept track of his people, that he knew every one by name, and knew just
where each one should be found. His superiors required a certain sum
of money from each tax collector. They did not care in the smallest
degree where or how he got th