, if you didn't get your lines tangled in the coral. I'd
rather moor the raft out in deeper water yonder off the shore. Couldn't
have a better place than we had yesterday."

Half an hour later they were being gently wafted towards their previous
day's landing place, where cocoanuts were obtained, fish caught, and a
large addition made to the number of pearl shells, which were laid on
the sand in the bright sunshine, it being decided that on a large scale
the task would be too laborious to open the great molluscs one by one.

"I'll show you how it's done, gen'lemen," said Bostock. "I've seen it.
Before long those shells 'll be gaping, and the oysters dead. Then
we'll haul one of the biggest casks we can get ashore and scrape out the
oysters and drop 'em in along with some water."

"To decay?" said the doctor.

"That's it, sir. Give 'em time and a stir-up every now and then, and
they go all into a nasty thin watery stuff which you can pour away, wash
what's left with clean water, and there at last are all the pearls at
the bottom without losing one, while the shells have lain in the sun and
grown sweet."

Enough pearling being done for the day, Bostock attacked one of the
heaviest laden cocoanut-trees, making a "sterrup," as he called it, by
passing a short piece of rope round himself and the tree, tying it fast,
and then half-sitting in it and pressing against the trunk with his
legs, hitching the rope up foot by foot till he reached the leafy crown,
where he screwed off a dozen fine nuts and threw them down upon the sand
before descending.

"Why, Bob," cried Carey, "I didn't think you were so clever as that."

"More did I, sir."

"But you must have had lots of practice."

"Nay, sir, I never did it afore; but I've seen the blacks do it often,
and it seemed so easy I thought I'd try."

Later on, when well refreshed, they went cautiously to the mouth of the
little river, stalking the crocodiles by gliding from rock to rock, but
without result; not a single pair of watchful eyes was to be seen on the
surface. There were, however, plenty of a mullet-like fish.

But the party preferred to make use of their lines from the raft moored
at the edge of the deep water, where they were not long in securing
half-a-dozen fine fish partaking of the appearance of the John Dory as
far as the great heads were concerned, but in bodily shape plumper and
thicker of build.

Then the raft was unmoored and the sail hoisted,