"Yes, but what's in it? Button factories all shut down with a strike,
and no market: and as for pearls, they ain't none. Blame me for
carryin' a grouch?"
"Not in the least. But what will you take for your shells, and agree
to open them for us, at wages of five dollars a day?"
"Both of us?" he demanded shrewdly. I smiled and nodded. "It's more
than you average, twice over," said I, "and you say the stream is no
good. Now I, too, am a student of the great law of averages, because I
am or was a director in a great life insurance company. You say the
luck is bad. Like other adventurers, I say that under the law of
averages, it is time for the luck to change."
"The luck's with you," growled the clammer, "it's ag'in me."
Unconsciously, he put a finger to his swollen nose. "What'll you
gimme?" he demanded.
"One hundred dollars bonus and ten dollars a day," said I promptly;
and he seemed to know I would not better that.
"Who are ye?" he queried: "a buyer?"
"No, a pirate."
"I believe ye. I never saw such a outfit."
"Will you trade?" I asked; "and how long will it take to open the
lot?"
"Nigh all day, even if we set up all night and roasted." He nodded to
a wide grating; and the ashes underneath showed that in this way the
poor clams, like the Incas of old, were sometimes forced to give up
their treasures by the persuasion of a fire under them.
"Very well," I said. "We'll call it a day. That's a hundred and ten
dollars for you by this time to-morrow. I invoke the aid of capital
and of chance, both, against you. You will very likely lose: but if
so, it would not be the first time the producer of wealth has lost it.
But I make the wager fair, as my reason tells me I should."
"Ye're a crazy bunch, and I think ye're out of the state asylum over
yonder," broke in the old woman, "but what the hell do we care whether
ye're crazy or not? Ye look like ye had the money. Jake, we'll take
him up."
"All right," said Jake. "We'll go ye."
"To-morrow morning, then," said I; and our party rose to return to our
camp, where Partial greeted us with warmth; he having assigned to
himself the duty of guard. And so, as Pepys would say, to bed;
although Lafitte and L'Olonnois scarce could sleep.
"Let him attempt to make a run for it, after we have hove him to, and
we will board him and give no quarter!" This was almost the last of
the direful speech I heard from L'Olonnois, as at last I turned myself
to a night of deep and peaceful slumber.