in the midst of a driving thunder squall that was
so dense that he collided with Huru-Huru before he saw him.

"Too late," yelled Huru-Huru. "Mapuhi sold it to Toriki for fourteen
hundred Chili, and Toriki sold it to Levy for twenty-five thousand
francs. And Levy will sell it in France for a hundred thousand francs.
Have you any tobacco?"

Raoul felt relieved. His troubles about the pearl were over. He need not
worry any more, even if he had not got the pearl. But he did not believe
Huru-Huru. Mapuhi might well have sold it for fourteen hundred Chili,
but that Levy, who knew pearls, should have paid twenty-five thousand
francs was too wide a stretch. Raoul decided to interview Captain Lynch
on the subject, but when he arrived at that ancient mariner's house, he
found him looking wide-eyed at the barometer.

"What do you read it?" Captain Lynch asked anxiously, rubbing his
spectacles and staring again at the instrument.

"Twenty-nine-ten," said Raoul. "I have never seen it so low before."

"I should say not!" snorted the captain. "Fifty years boy and man on all
the seas, and I've never seen it go down to that. Listen!"

They stood for a moment, while the surf rumbled and shook the house.
Then they went outside. The squall had passed. They could see the
Aorai lying becalmed a mile away and pitching and tossing madly in
the tremendous seas that rolled in stately procession down out of the
northeast and flung themselves furiously upon the coral shore. One of
the sailors from the boat pointed at the mouth of the passage and shook
his head. Raoul looked and saw a white anarchy of foam and surge.

"I guess I'll stay with you tonight, Captain," he said; then turned to
the sailor and told him to haul the boat out and to find shelter for
himself and fellows.

"Twenty-nine flat," Captain Lynch reported, coming out from another look
at the barometer, a chair in his hand.

He sat down and stared at the spectacle of the sea. The sun came out,
increasing the sultriness of the day, while the dead calm still held.
The seas continued to increase in magnitude.

"What makes that sea is what gets me," Raoul muttered petulantly.

"There is no wind, yet look at it, look at that fellow there!"

Miles in length, carrying tens of thousands of tons in weight, its
impact shook the frail atoll like an earthquake. Captain Lynch was
startled.

"Gracious!" he bellowed, half rising from his chair, then sinking back.

"But there is no wi