ng to find more like them. Now, this
meant stopping at sea longer than was either customary or advisable. The
pearling season was practically at an end, and the yearly cyclonic
changes were actually due, but the captain had got the "pearl fever" very
badly and flatly refused to leave. Already we had made an enormous haul,
and in addition to the stock in my charge Jensen had rows of pickle
bottles full of pearls in his cabin, which he would sit and gloat over
for hours like a miser with his gold. He kept on saying that there
_must_ be more of these black pearls to be obtained; the three we had
found could not possibly be isolated specimens and so on. Accordingly,
we kept our divers at work day after day as usual. Of course, I did not
know much about the awful dangers to which we were exposing ourselves by
remaining out in such uncertain seas when the cyclones were due; and I
did not, I confess, see any great reason why we should _not_ continue
pearling. I was inexperienced, you see.

The pearl-fishing season, as I afterwards learned, extends from November
to May. Well, May came and went, and we were still hard at work, hoping
that each day would bring another haul of black pearls to our store of
treasure; in this, however, we were disappointed. And yet the captain
became more determined than ever to find some. He continued to take
charge of the whale-boat whenever the divers went out to work, and he
personally superintended their operations. He knew very well that he had
already kept them at work longer than he ought to have done, and it was
only by a judicious distribution of more jewellery, pieces of cloth, &c.,
that he withheld them from openly rebelling against the extended stay.
The serang told him that if the men did once go on strike, nothing would
induce them to resume work, they would simply sulk, he said; and die out
of sheer disappointment and pettishness. So the captain was compelled to
treat them more amiably than usual. At the very outside their contract
would only be for nine months. Sometimes when he showed signs of being
in a cantankerous mood because the haul of shells did not please him, the
serang would say to him defiantly, "Come on; take it out of me if you are
not satisfied." But Jensen never accepted the challenge. As the days
passed, I thought the weather showed indications of a change; for one
thing, the aneroid began jumping about in a very uneasy manner. I called
Jensen's atten