Before I could even cry out to him his warning was effective. I saw my
clam fisher go white and put his hands over his head, the while his
dam ran screaming toward the tent--Jimmy L'Olonnois at her heels,
sword in hand, and warning her not to get a gun, else her life's blood
would dye the strand.
Here, now, was a pretty pickle for a sworn servant of the law to aid
in making! A wrong move might mean murder done by these imaginative
youths, and I no less than accessory, to boot; for, surely, I had
given them aid and violent counsel in this drama which we all were
playing so naturally, if not so nobly. I hastened over to Lafitte and
called loudly to L'Olonnois, and commanded Partial to drop the renewed
encounter with the clammers' dog, which now, also, swiftly threatened
us. So, in a moment or two, I restored peace.
I held out my hand to the clammer. "I didn't know you seen me," said
he simply; and placed in my hand three pearls, either of them worth
more than all I had paid him, and one of them the largest and best I
had ever seen--it is the pearl famous as the "Belle Helène," the
finest ever taken in fresh waters in America, so it is said by
Tiffany's.
I looked at him quietly, and handed him back all but the one pearl. "I
am sorry you were not a better sport," said I, "very sorry. Didn't I
play fair with you?"
"No," said he. "Some folks have all the luck. You come along here,
rich, with all sorts of things, you and them d----d kids, and you'd
rob a man like me out of what little he can make."
I was opening my wallet again. "I am sorry to hear you say that," said
I, handing him two bills of a hundred dollars each. "Sorry, because it
has cost you twenty-eight hundred dollars."
"My God, man, what do you mean?" he gasped, even his fingers slow to
take both money and contempt.
"That the pearl is worth to me that much, since I have purpose for it.
I have more money than I want, and fewer pearls like this than I want.
It would have given me the keenest sort of pleasure to give you and
your mother a few thousand dollars, two or three, to set you up with a
little launch and an outfit enough to give you a good start--and,
perhaps, a good partner. As it is, you are lucky my pirate brother has
not blown a hole through you, and that my other brother has not shed
the blood of your parent, if she have any. You had a good chance, and
like many another man who isn't good enough to deserve success, you
lost it. Do you know why you failed?"