dappled wood. From every window there is a view
o f sea and sky and island, and far down b y . the foreshore
there is the first cluster of human beings, and
a flight of wheeling gulls about the fishing-boats that
have come in with the dawn.
Just now, in spite of the pessimism of Captain Le
Fevre, the town is agog with excitement; if such an
emotion can be said to assail a settlement wrapped in
Lydian airs, and far away from the highways of the
world. Pearls of great price have been found, and
every dweller in Mergui believes that he is destined
to find others like them. So the populace is going
to and fro, borrowing or begging the wherewithal to
start in pearling adventure. Olpherts, the little town-
clerk, talks of throwing up his place. As it brings
him in a hundred a year I am surprised to hear this,
and suggest that he has some offer of a greater post.
“ No, sir,” he replies, “ but I am thinking of turning
pearler.”
I wonder at him, looking upon his slim, clerkly figure
and pale little face.
“ In fact,” he adds with a jerk, jg I have already
entered the business. Last season I bought a boat and
a pump—it was second-hand, but a good pump, sir—and
my wife went out and looked after the shells. We
found two pearls worth 2,200 rupees, and after paying
all expenses made a profit of four hundred. But two
months ago my wife died, and the boat is now upon
my hands. I cannot work it if I remain here. Last
week I sent it out in the charge of the tender, and,
494