ll, weazened,
leather-colored, secretive--a strange, complex creature, steeped in all
the obscure mystery of the East, nervous, ill at ease; and the girl, the
Anglo-Saxon, daughter of the Northmen, huge, blond, big-boned, frank,
outspoken, simple of composition, open as the day, bareheaded, her great
ropes of sandy hair falling over her breast and almost to the top of her
knee-boots. As he looked at the two, Wilbur asked himself where else but
in California could such abrupt contrasts occur.

"All light," announced Hoang; "catchum all oil, catchum all bone,
catchum all same plenty many. You help catchum, now you catchum pay.
Sabe?"

The three principals came to a settlement with unprecedented directness.
Like all Chinamen, Hoang was true to his promises, and he had already
set apart three and a half barrels of spermaceti, ten barrels of
oil, and some twenty pounds of bone as the schooner's share in the
transaction. There was no discussion over the matter. He called their
attention to the discharge of his obligations, and hurried away to
summon his men aboard and get the junk under way again.

The beach-combers returned to their junk, and Wilbur and Moran set about
cutting the carcass of the whale adrift. They found it would be easier
to cut away the hide from around the hooks and loops of the tackle than
to unfasten the tackle itself.

"The knots are jammed hard as steel," declared Moran. "Hand up that
cutting-in spade; stand by with the other and cut loose at the same time
as I do, so we can ease off the strain on these lines at the same time.
Ready there, cut!" Moran set free the hook in the loop of black skin in
a couple of strokes, but Wilbur was more clumsy; the skin resisted. He
struck at it sharply with the heavy spade; the blade hit the iron hook,
glanced off, and opened a large slit in the carcass below the head.
A gush of entrails started from the slit, and Moran swore under her
breath.

"Ease away, quick there! You'll have the mast out of her next--steady!
Hold your spade--what's that?"

Wilbur had nerved himself against the dreadful stench he expected would
issue from the putrid monster, but he was surprised to note a pungent,
sweet, and spicy odor that all at once made thick the air about him. It
was an aromatic smell, stronger than that of the salt ocean, stronger
even than the reek of oil and blubber from the schooner's waist--sweet
as incense, penetrating as attar, delicious as a summer breeze.