Angel Island

"Perhaps that's what hoodooed us," Pete went on. "You know they say the

Wilmington 'Blue' brought bad luck to everybody who owned it. Anyway,

battle, murder, adultery, rape, rapine, and sudden death have followed

it right along the line down through history. Oh, it's been a busy cake

of ice - take it from muh! Hope the mermaids fight shy of it."

"The Wilmington 'Blue' isn't alone in that," Ralph Addington said. "All

big diamonds have raised hell. You ought to hear some of the stories

they tell in India about the rajahs' treasures. Some of those briolettes

- you listen long enough and you come to the conclusion that the sooner

all the big stones are cut up, the better."

"I bet this one isn't gone," said Pete. "Anybody take me? That's the

contrariety of the beasts - they won't stay lost. We'll find that stone

yet - where among our loot. The first thing we know, we'll be all

knifing each other to get it."

"Time's up," called Frank Merrill. "Sorry to drive you, but we've got to

keep at it as long as the light lasts. After to-day, though, we need

work only at high water. Between times, we can explore the island - " He

spoke as if he were wheedling a group of boys with the promise of play.

"Select a site for our capital city" - Honey Smith helped him out

facetiously - "lay out streets - begin to excavate for the church,

town-hall, schoolhouse, and library."

"The first thing to do now," Frank Merrill went on, as usual, ignoring

all facetiousness, "is to put up a signal."

Under his direction, they nailed a pair of sheets, one at the southern,

the other at the northern reef, to saplings which they stripped of

branches. Then they went back to the struggle for salvage.

The fascination of work - and of such novel work - still held them. They

labored the rest of the morning, lay off for a brief lunch, went at it

again in the afternoon, paused for dinner, and worked far into the

evening. Once they stopped long enough to build a huge signal fire on

the each. When they turned in, not one of them but nursed torn and

blistered hands. Not one of them but fell asleep the instant he lay

down.

They slept until long after sunrise.

It was Pete Murphy who waked them. "Say, who was it, yesterday, talked

about seeing black spots? I'm hanged if I'm not hipped, too. When I woke

just before sunrise, there were black things off there in the west. Of

course I was almost dead to the world but - "