ple supply, and the boy
returned flushed and brown, full of the adventures he had had.

Black Jack now took to heading the fishing expeditions, and always
looked after Carey at starting time, grinning and making signs
suggestive of hauling up the fish and hitting them over the heads with a
nulla-nulla, while the crew of the outrigger canoe always greeted the
boy with a grin of satisfaction.

"They are all awfully civil to me now," said Carey to Bostock, "but I
think it's a good deal due to the ticky-ticky. I say, Bob, how long
will the molasses last?"

"Oh, some time yet, sir."

"But when the last jar's eaten?"

"Then you must try the pickles, sir. And when that's done, as it used
to say on a big picture on the walls in London, `If you like the
pickles, try the sauce.' There's no end o' bottles o' sauce."

"Are there? Are you sure?"

"Yes, sir. There's a big consignment, as they call it, sent from London
to Brisbane. One part o' the hold's chock full o' cases. Why, there's
a lot o' sugar things too. Oh, we shall find enough to keep them
beggars going for a long time yet."

Meantime the great tubs had all been emptied with more or less
satisfactory results, and re-filling began with the accompanying
stacking of the shells. The pearls were stowed away in cigar boxes,
which were emptied for the purpose, the beachcomber now taking to
smoking some of those turned out, and giving an abundance to Carey, who
took them eagerly, always carrying several in his pocket.

"Surely you are not going to smoke those, my boy?" said the doctor, who
looked quite aghast. "Wait a few years before you try anything of that
kind."

"Why?" said the boy, with an arch look. "Because if you begin now you
will most likely be laying up a store of trouble for the future in the
shape of a disordered digestion, which may hang about you all your
life."

"I'm not going to smoke them," said Carey, laughing. "Look here, I roll
each one up tight in a bit of paper, and then cut it with a sharp knife
into six, ready to give the black fellows if they behave themselves.
They'll do anything for me for a bit of tobacco."

"But don't they ever try to take it away from you?"

"Not now. They tried snatching once or twice, but I gave the one who
did a good sharp crack, and they left it off, for I'm always fair to
them."

"A dangerous game to play."

"Oh, no. The others always laugh at the one who's hit. They don't seem
to mind taking