CHAPTER FIVE 



Jewels of Venus 



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T was a perfect morning in May. 

 My Faithful Assistant and I, for the 

 past two hours since sunrise, had 

 been combing a neighboring beach 

 I for such chance zoological treasures 

 as were exposed by an unusually low ebbing of a 

 spring tide. Steadily the sun climbed in a cloudless 

 sky of beguiling blue, tempering gradually with a 

 tropic warmth the chilled sands, the rocks, and the 

 shell-strewn reaches that line that lovely strand. 

 Not the slightest wind disturbed the transparent 

 water through which could be seen the bottom and 

 its gardens of greenery spangled with more than a 

 million living stars; no mist marred the romantic 

 beckoning beauty which distance lends to the ver- 

 dant slopes of the opposite harbor shore. The sur- 

 rounding scene was vibrant: the blue above — be- 

 witching, bright-cobalt blue — was scarcely more 



[H8] 



