l like it in Hikueru, in all the
Paumotus, in all the world. Mapuhi is a fool. He has sold it to Toriki
for fourteen hundred Chili--I listened outside and heard. Toriki is
likewise a fool. You can buy it from him cheap. Remember that I told you
first. Have you any tobacco?"

"Where is Toriki?"

"In the house of Captain Lynch, drinking absinthe. He has been there an
hour."

And while Levy and Toriki drank absinthe and chaffered over the pearl,
Huru-Huru listened and heard the stupendous price of twenty-five
thousand francs agreed upon.

It was at this time that both the OROHENA and the Hira, running in close
to the shore, began firing guns and signalling frantically. The three
men stepped outside in time to see the two schooners go hastily about
and head off shore, dropping mainsails and flying jibs on the run in
the teeth of the squall that heeled them far over on the whitened water.
Then the rain blotted them out.

"They'll be back after it's over," said Toriki. "We'd better be getting
out of here."

"I reckon the glass has fallen some more," said Captain Lynch.

He was a white-bearded sea-captain, too old for service, who had learned
that the only way to live on comfortable terms with his asthma was on
Hikueru. He went inside to look at the barometer.

"Great God!" they heard him exclaim, and rushed in to join him at
staring at a dial, which marked twenty-nine-twenty.

Again they came out, this time anxiously to consult sea and sky.
The squall had cleared away, but the sky remained overcast. The two
schooners, under all sail and joined by a third, could be seen making
back. A veer in the wind induced them to slack off sheets, and five
minutes afterward a sudden veer from the opposite quarter caught all
three schooners aback, and those on shore could see the boom-tackles
being slacked away or cast off on the jump. The sound of the surf was
loud, hollow, and menacing, and a heavy swell was setting in. A terrible
sheet of lightning burst before their eyes, illuminating the dark day,
and the thunder rolled wildly about them.

Toriki and Levy broke into a run for their boats, the latter ambling
along like a panic-stricken hippopotamus. As their two boats swept out
the entrance, they passed the boat of the Aorai coming in. In the stern
sheets, encouraging the rowers, was Raoul. Unable to shake the vision of
the pearl from his mind, he was returning to accept Mapuhi's price of a
house.

He landed on the beach