.'

'Why should that be a good job?' said Herrick.

'Oh, you'll see how it pans out presently,' returned Davis. 'You go
ashore and stand in with him, that's all! You'll get lots of pointers;
you can find out what he has, and what the charter is, and who's the
fourth man--for there's four of them, and we're only three.'

'And suppose I do, what next?' cried Herrick. 'Answer me that!'

'So I will, Robert Herrick,' said the captain. 'But first, let's see all
clear. I guess you know,' he said with an imperious solemnity, 'I guess
you know the bottom is out of this Farallone speculation? I guess you
know it's RIGHT out? and if this old island hadn't been turned up right
when it did, I guess you know where you and I and Huish would have
been?'

'Yes, I know that,' said Herrick. 'No matter who's to blame, I know it.
And what next?'

'No matter who's to blame, you know it, right enough,' said the captain,
'and I'm obliged to you for the reminder. Now here's this Attwater: what
do you think of him?'

'I do not know,' said Herrick. 'I am attracted and repelled. He was
insufferably rude to you.'

'And you, Huish?' said the captain.

Huish sat cleaning a favourite briar root; he scarce looked up from that
engrossing task. 'Don't ast me what I think of him!' he said. 'There's a
day comin', I pray Gawd, when I can tell it him myself.'

'Huish means the same as what I do,' said Davis. 'When that man came
stepping around, and saying "Look here, I'm Attwater"--and you knew it
was so, by God!--I sized him right straight up. Here's the real
article, I said, and I don't like it; here's the real, first-rate,
copper-bottomed aristocrat. 'AW' I DON'T KNOW YE, DO I? GOD DAMN YE, DID
GOD MAKE YE?' No, that couldn't be nothing but genuine; a man got to be
born to that, and notice! smart as champagne and hard as nails; no kind
of a fool; no, SIR! not a pound of him! Well, what's he here upon this
beastly island for? I said. HE'S not here collecting eggs. He's a palace
at home, and powdered flunkies; and if he don't stay there, you bet he
knows the reason why! Follow?'

'O yes, I 'ear you,' said Huish.

'He's been doing good business here, then,' continued the captain. 'For
ten years, he's been doing a great business. It's pearl and shell, of
course; there couldn't be nothing else in such a place, and no doubt
the shell goes off regularly by this Trinity Hall, and the money for it
straight into the bank, so that's no use to us. But