Chapter 29

As for me, the diving fascinated me more each day: the beauty and strangeness of the underwater world; the spice of danger--small, but a reality, nevertheless; and the thought of money I was earning; the daily, even hourly, hope of finding a rich pearl, perhaps worth a small fortune. From time to time we found a few small pearls, but when at last good fortune came to us, it came hand in hand with tragedy. As the nearer shell-patches became worked out, the canoes moved gradually northward, taking the cream of the sh…