and now I said to him mildly, and
in a low tone of voice, "It would be of no use--I should only beat you
again; and I would rather spare your mother. You see," I added in a
louder tone of voice, "the natives put pearls in their hair, between
their toes, in their mouths--although they do not chew tobacco as you
do. One who merely put one in the pocket of his overalls--if he wore
overalls--would be called very clumsy, indeed, especially if he had
been seen to do it."

Involuntarily, he clapped a hand on his pocket. What would have been
his next act I do not know, for at that moment I heard a voice call
out sharply, "Halt! villain. Throw up your hands, or by heavens you
die!" Turning swiftly, I saw Lafitte, his pistol barrel rested in very
serviceable fashion in the crotch of a staff, the same as when he
first accosted me on my stream, glancing along the barrel with an
ominous gray eye again gone three-cornered.

Before I could even cry out to him his warning was effective. I saw my
clam fisher go white and put his hands over his head, the while his
dam ran screaming toward the tent--Jimmy L'Olonnois at her heels,
sword in hand, and warning her not to get a gun, else her life's blood
would dye the strand.

Here, now, was a pretty pickle for a sworn servant of the law to aid
in making! A wrong move might mean murder done by these imaginative
youths, and I no less than accessory, to boot; for, surely, I had
given them aid and violent counsel in this drama which we all were
playing so naturally, if not so nobly. I hastened over to Lafitte and
called loudly to L'Olonnois, and commanded Partial to drop the renewed
encounter with the clammers' dog, which now, also, swiftly threatened
us. So, in a moment or two, I restored peace.

I held out my hand to the clammer. "I didn't know you seen me," said
he simply; and placed in my hand three pearls, either of them worth
more than all I had paid him, and one of them the largest and best I
had ever seen--it is the pearl famous as the "_Belle Helene_," the
finest ever taken in fresh waters in America, so it is said by
Tiffany's.

I looked at him quietly, and handed him back all but the one pearl. "I
am sorry you were not a better sport," said I, "very sorry. Didn't I
play fair with you?"

"No," said he. "Some folks have all the luck. You come along here,
rich, with all sorts of things, you and them d----d kids, and you'd
rob a man like me out of what little he can make."

I wa