Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1919 — The Blood Pearl [ARTICLE]

The Blood Pearl

By ALBERT DORRINGTON

(Copyright) “The thief must be punished,” Sashino intimated blandly. “It was a gem of strange orient and milkiness. lam told it bad a blood mist. There are men.here who saw it!” The. crew of Japanese shelters mustered silently on the oyster-strewn deck of the Three Moons. The sea was as still as a sleeping child. .In thefar* south a few ragged palms marked the limit of the Vanderdecken l>ank, where the cheeping sun birds -drowsed over the milp-long fleet of •working luggers. Sashino was captain of the Three Moons, and he resented bitterly, the frequent thefts of pearls from his lugger. The tricks of the average diamond thief become ludicrously apparent when compared with the almost superhuman evasions of the Japanese shell opener. Captain Sashino had «rown subtle with experience, but his smiling patience gave out before the -constant pilferings of almost priceless; gems. Four coolies appeared from the forward hatch escorting a naked Japanese diver. A stern silence awaited him. For a few moments he remained sullenly Irresolute, cigarette in mouth, his hare toes kicking scraps of opened shell across the deck. Captain Sashino regarded him contemptuously from his station near the main hatch. “You steal my pearl, Insumi, th’e one you found on the Black Lip bank. I am willing to hear you. Say what!” —lnsumi hunched his reef-scarred shoulders, cast furtive, sidelong glances at the crew, and was silent. “What made you steal ?” Sashino repeated. “The German buyers or your sweetheart in the town? Say quick!” Insumi frowned. “I work hard, Captain Sashino, for email pay. Only once or twice have I taken a little pearl. My sweetheart does not ask me to steal.” He turned again to the crew, as though expecting a friendly demonetration on his behalf. There was none. A windlass-hand, wearing a coolie loin-cloth, was holding a baited line over the port bow. Incidentally, a. pair of tiger sharks drifted from the shadow of the lugger’s keel, and remained motionless within a few yards of the bait. The pearl thief folded his arms sub-' missively, as one expecting punishment swift and unannounced. The silent wrath that moves Japanese le- - glons to impossible assaults flowed from the captain’s gestures. He turned to a diver at his elbow and whispered. The crew, catching his meaning, became suddenly alert. A volcanic rage swept over them. Oaths of strange origin and dialects filled the air. Captain Sashino nodded twice, and called to the windlass-hand with the baited line. Three men caught Insumi by the shoulders, and fastened the line about his waist and hips, leaving his arms .free. ' . . ' , ’ “Over!” shouted the captain. “Let him keep his knife.” Insumi was dangling over the bows, his breast and feet nearly touching the water. The tropic sun pierced almost to the sandy floor of the straits. A tiger shark does not always swoop to the object in slght. buf will sometimes Inspect it for a short period, then vanish for a brief space and return with the speed of a hawk. The thief lay suspended within an inch of the water, his knees slightly updrawn. The knife in his right hand was held point out from his face. Above him leant the crew of the lugger, telling him in fluent Japanese that thieves and sharks were the spawn of devil men. , An inquisitive snout appeared under the lugger’s bow; a pair of swinish eyes began to regard the suspended Insumi with patient interest, then, moving slowly in a straight line, flashed suddenly under his chest. Insumi’s back arched as the gray belly •wept beneath; a quick, grunting stab followed, and the water grew crimson for several yards. He breathed hoarsely and wagged his bullet head. “Fool!” sneered the captain. “The scent will bring others, and they will hustle him to death like Americans!” A loud thrashing was heard near the heum. The strong tide swept the red stains clear of the lugger. For a period that seemed like eternity the suspended man looked eagerly into the water as though listening. Then, with a sudmovement, he tried to turp toward a torpedolike shadow that rushed from the shelter of the lugger’s stern. A gash, wide as a sabercut, appeared on his naked hip. “A fin-stroke!”' chuckled the captain. “The old shark has got him now. It will be a slow fight, my children.” - A hot stillness hung about the straits. Tbe Jap lay motionless, eye and ear.almost touching the water, his glance fixed immovably on the trowelshaped fin that stayed within gunshot rtf the vessel. Neither the tide nor the shouts of the divers could urge it on. “The big fish Is playing with him,” . smiled the captain. “Do not make too much noise, my children.” Then ap unexpected commotion happened 'n the water; a school Of small sharks began to sport about the thief’s ankles. With a rippling movement of the wriai. be slashed into them right

and left, dispersing them like a shoal of mullet. ' One blue-snouted invader, more cunning than the rest, tore at his ribs as it escaped under the tugger’s stern. ■ L Within thirty seconds the school returned and the fight began again. The watching pearlers screamed excitedly Over the lugger's rail, while the baby sharks grew clever and harassed Insumi on the off side. They dung like leeches,, eluding his knife thrusts, retreating* and "attacking with the speed of torpedoes. Breathing stertorously, he held up an appealing hand, once, twice. A cold, unresponsive silence followed, while the captain lit a cigarette. ' Then, as if by a signal from the outer .deeps, the swarm of sharklets drew off. Some one pointed to the trowel-shaped fin moving once more to its quarry. Many of the pearlers knew if for one of the oldest monsters that Inhabited the great reef-passage. Dozens of trepang fishers had attempted its capture without success, but the human bait now offered was more than It could resist. There- was no deviation from the •line of attack; it flashed straight under the Jap’s ribs. With the strength and fortitude of his kind the suspended man thrust his left hand into the open jaws. A second later his knife arm was slashing at the upturned th roat. For a moment it seemed as though the rope would break under the strain. With lunatic strength he appeared to be holding the shark at arm’s length beneath the water. Then, with a cry, he stabbed downward again and again until his head dropped forward. “Heave up!” shouted the captain. Slowly they hauled him over the rail, and they saw that his left arm was torn and shredded where it had entered the gaping mouth. The captain surveyed the hurt man calmly. There was no trace of emotion in his voice as he addressed the assembled crew. - “Fearwlllnot make him speak. The pearl is somewhere and we may yet find It. Take him below and see that his hurts are attended to. There is an English doctor in the town.” Late in the afternoon, when the sun’s rays lay in streaks of fierce red across the straits of Torres, a dead tiger shark drifted under the lugger’s stern, past the bobbing heads of the naked divers. Around it swarmed a ravenous shoal of black bream and yellow-tails guzzling, flashing their silver near the wide gash under the upturned throat. Incidentally a dory pushed off from a tiny pier at the inlet’s mouth, and rowed slowly In the wake of the dead monster. A Malay diver and a Japanese coolie sat at the oars. The dead shark drifted beyond the great oyster bank where the long sea grass swayed and rippled in the outgoing tide. Leaning from the dory the Malay thrust a boat-hook under the shark’s dorsal fin, and drew it with much labor under the lee of a palmsheltered promontory. “Sashlno’s glasses cannot follow us now,” he panted. -t’Therewill be no need to hurry with our work.” The shark was beached, and, after a careful survey of the surrounding scrub, the Malay drew a long sheath knife and passed his thumb gently over the' point. Then with a dozen deft strokes he laid bare the huge gullet white the Jap coolie plunged his fists inside. Tbe two men grunted on their knees beside the dead shark, searching and probing with the craft of deep sea fishermen. The surf rippled and screamed over the low sand dunes as the tide receded beyond the mangrove belt. The Malay’s head came up with a sudden jerk. Drawing liis hand from the bared throat of the monster, he held it aloft exultantly. A pearl of peculiar luster and orient gleamed between his finger and thumb. Thesun rays seemed to Illumine it with supernatural radiance as he held It up for the Jap’s inspection. “If a thief cares not where he puts his arm, comrade, there are always good hiding-places for a ten thousauddollar pearl!” A chuckling sound escaped the ( Jap as he leant forward to inspect the pearl which the desperate Insumi had thrust into the monster’s throat. “Insumi was born with a crease in l>is palm. I sa-.v Sashino look into his hand before they swung him to the shark. I could not hide a bead in mine!” ’ A few days later Insumi, his left arm swathed in bandages, met his tw® confreres at the house of a Chinese pearl buyer near Deliverance inlet. Aftter'much haggling and delay Insumi received SSO for his share in the deal.