aid, an idea that his last carouse had 'done for' him,
and that he would not live much longer.

"That evening the old man told us the story of his life. It was a
truly strange and chequered one. When quite a young man he had been
flogged, and then deserted from H.M.S. _Blossom_, Captain Beechy, in
1825, and ever since then had remained in the South Seas, living
sometimes the idle and dissolute life of the beach-comber, sometimes
that of the industrious and adventurous trader. My husband was
interested, for he liked the old fellow, who, in spite of his drunken
habits, had many excellent qualities. For myself he always professed
the greatest regard, and that evening he proved it.

"After he had finished his story he turned to my husband, and said--

"'You and your wife have always been true friends to drunken old Jack
Gurden. Now, tell me, did you ever know me to tell a lie except when I
wanted to get a drink and hadn't any excuse?'

"We both laughed, and said we knew he was a truthful man.

"'Did you ever hear me talking about a lagoon full of pearl shell--when
I was mad with drink?' he inquired.

"We laughed again, and said that he had done so very often.

"'Ah,' he said, 'but it is true. There is such a place, and now that
my time is coming near, I'll tell you where it is, and you, Mrs.
Tracey, who have nursed the old drunken, blackguard beachcomber, and
asked him to seek strength from God to keep off the cursed grog, will
be one of the richest women in the world. I wrote it all down four or
five months ago, in case when you came back here you found I was dead.'

"Thereupon he handed my husband a number of sheets of paper, on one of
which was drawn a rough plan of Arrecifos Island, or, as he called it,
Ujilong. The rest contained clear and perfectly written details of the
position of the pearl-shell beds."

Barry nodded. "He had lived there, I suppose."

"For quite a number of years--from 1840 to 1846. He married one of the
native women there. There were then over seven hundred natives living
on these thirteen islands, and Gurden said he could quite understand
why the richness of the pearl beds were never discovered by white men,
for no ship had ever entered the lagoon within the memory of any living
native of the place, and not once in ten years did the people even see
a passing ship send a boat ashore."

(That this was true, Barry knew, for he had often heard trading
captains speak of Arrecifos