luck to change."

"The luck's with you," growled the clammer, "it's ag'in me."
Unconsciously, he put a finger to his swollen nose. "What'll you
gimme?" he demanded.

"One hundred dollars bonus and ten dollars a day," said I promptly;
and he seemed to know I would not better that.

"Who are ye?" he queried: "a buyer?"

"No, a pirate."

"I believe ye. I never saw such a outfit."

"Will you trade?" I asked; "and how long will it take to open the
lot?"

"Nigh all day, even if we set up all night and roasted." He nodded to
a wide grating; and the ashes underneath showed that in this way the
poor clams, like the Incas of old, were sometimes forced to give up
their treasures by the persuasion of a fire under them.

"Very well," I said. "We'll call it a day. That's a hundred and ten
dollars for you by this time to-morrow. I invoke the aid of capital
and of chance, both, against you. You will very likely lose: but if
so, it would not be the first time the producer of wealth has lost it.
But I make the wager fair, as my reason tells me I should."

"Ye're a crazy bunch, and I think ye're out of the state asylum over
yonder," broke in the old woman, "but what the hell do we care whether
ye're crazy or not? Ye look like ye had the money. Jake, we'll take
him up."

"All right," said Jake. "We'll go ye."

"To-morrow morning, then," said I; and our party rose to return to our
camp, where Partial greeted us with warmth; he having assigned to
himself the duty of guard. And so, as Pepys would say, to bed;
although Lafitte and L'Olonnois scarce could sleep.

"Let him attempt to make a run for it, after we have hove him to, and
we will board him and give no quarter!" This was almost the last of
the direful speech I heard from L'Olonnois, as at last I turned myself
to a night of deep and peaceful slumber.

CHAPTER IX

IN WHICH WE TAKE MUCH TREASURE

"You must be awful rich, Black Bart," said L'Olonnois to me as we sat
on the grass, at breakfast, the following morning.

"No, Jimmy," I replied, putting down my coffee cup, "on the contrary,
I am very poor."

"But you have all sorts of things, back there where you live; and last
night you said you would pay that man a hundred dollars, just to open
a lot of clam shells. Now, a hundred dollars is a awful sight of
money."

"That depends, Jimmy," I said.

"'N' we'd ought to _take_ them pearls," broke in Lafitte. "Didn't we
lick him?"

"We did, yes; twice." And in