pearls, which I did not like leaving at home, as there
is now no one there to look after them,” and thereupon
he thrusts his hand into the pocket of his grey coat,
and pulls out—a match-box.
“ Heavens!” I think, “ he is going to display me
his thousand-pounder 1 ” But he denies me the emotion,
and produces two pearls of lesser price, and they lie
upon the table for an hour, gleaming among his folios,
till I beg him to put them out of danger. He informs
me that he is not the only lucky person in Mergui;
that there are six men who have found pearls of price,
and that one*of these is worth no less than 18,000
rupees. Lindsay the Australian, he says, found one
before he left Mergui, which he sold for 17,000,
Very quickly after that it was sold for 23,000, and
three, times after that in Bombay, and each time at a
higher price,
“ U Shway E , sir, the Salon trader, has two quart
bottles full of pearls, and they say that in the old days
before people knew their value, he bought them from
the Saldn at one rupee each ! ”
These pearling grounds have in fact a very recent
history. In the ’eighties they were practically unknown.
In the early ’nineties they were worked by Australian
adventurers, most qf whom have now departed. The
pearling grounds are now leased in blocks to a syndicate
of Chinamen/ who grant sub-leases to individual adventurers
at the rate of twenty-five pounds a pump, for the
pearling year. The main harvest is of mother-of-pearl,
and it is this harvest that pays the working expenses,
498
The pearls are a speculative asset ; a glorious and
limitless possibility, that sheds the lustre of romance
over a difficult means of livelihood.
Over and beyond the lottery of the pearl, there is
the gamble and excitement of the blister. You dive,
and you bring up a shell. That is good. You open it
and you find a blister. Splendid possibility! Many
hopes assail you. Does your blister contain a pearl ?
Is the said pearl matchless in colour and form ? Of
great size? Almost priceless? Or ? You see,
THE DIVER EMERGING ( 2)
there is always the fatal alternative. To add a new
thrill to your excitement you must now face the matter
of its disposal. Will you part with it unopened to some
other speculator, pocketing a substantial but very
499