21 8 TROPIC DAYS 



pulp, and still treasured the quids, while the "Boss" 

 pondered cigars during the day and dreamt them at 

 night. But reUef was at hand. The master of the 

 strange craft, though well stocked, was not disposed to 

 be generous, until tempted by the sight of a lovely 

 yellow pearl, about the size of a small marble and of 

 satiny lustre — sweet to look upon, sweeter still to possess. 

 Aware of the other man's agonising needs, he drove a 

 hard bargain, and the gem became his at the cost of a 

 box of tobacco. He hugged himself for joy, and after 

 a decent lapse, during which he acted the part of the 

 virtuous who had relieved another's necessities out of 

 sheer goodwill (for the pearl was only a curio, was it 

 not ?), he set sail for the nearest port. 



Certain that fortune had at last beamed upon him, 

 he laid up his lugger, wound up his affairs, and hurried 

 off to Sydney, secretly, to dispose of his prize first-hand. 

 An expert weighed the treasure, scrutinised it shrewdly 

 through a microscope, and handed it back with a casual 

 remark that it was a pretty curio, but that its market 

 value was about half a crown. "It has been exposed 

 to great heat, and may crumble to pieces at a change of 

 temperature. Get me one like that uncooked and I'll 

 give 3^ou twelve hundred pounds." 



Some time after, the gras.^ing man discovered that 

 the pearl had been found in the "meat" of a "helmet" 

 shell which had been roasted by a hungry and tobacco- 

 less boy. 



Without appearing to suggest anything beN^^ond a 

 trifling blemish in this story, replete as it is with edif3'ing 

 illustrations of the frailties of human nature, it would 

 be well to remember that the helmet shell {Cassis flam- 

 rnea) is not nacreous and could not therefore produce 

 a true pearl, but merely a porcellaneous concretion, 

 which, however, might possess a most attractive tint, 



