The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1909-06-23


store schooner to the ugly cargo tramp
that squatted Oh the fianks of the
eompanys luggers. couple of whale
boats piled across the straits, dodg-
ing the skulking praus and trepang
dredgers, until the last case was safe
ly slowed in the tramp's after-hold.
A score of helmeted divers descend
ed in patches from the steps of the
luggers to the reef-strewn floor of the
straits. The soft whining of air
pumps, the loud, unhealthy coughing
of some lung-wasted diver, broke the
hot afternoon silence. From cape to
coral bank the straits seemed alive
with wheeling sun-birds and slow
drifting craft.
A laughing japanese boy steering
four Jap fishermen in half-decked
yawl, swung from the hubble of drift
1ng junks, and lay abeam of the pearl
ing feet. In fash, 1t seemed, their
long lead sinkers were out, and their
four schapper lines whipped the water
simultaneously.
Captain William Hayes was at that
moment exhibiting several samples OF
black-lip pearl to a perspiring she'll
buyer seated abaft the stifling deck
house. Leaning over the rail, he
glanced darkly at the close-drifting
yawl. Don't fly your blamed hooks
over my shell grounds" he said
harshly. These are licensed waters,
Mr.. Japan"
The Assamese boy held out his hand
pleadingly You let us fish little
while, Cap'n. Poor Japanese boy no
work get"
Get work gunshot or two from
this lugger," nodded the white man.
Last month somebody's fishing hook
fouled an air tube and suffocated
diver. Maybe you Shinto people fancy
it's a blamed fine joke"
The four Japanese fishermen re-
manned must as bronze images in the
yawl. Save for the boys anxious
glance at the big white Captain above,
they seemed unaware of his existence.
Hayes regarded them keenly as the
tide drew them nearer and nearer th
vessels stern. They'd climb aboard
and loot the galley If went ashore
he said TO the astonished agent beside
him. They'd steal the lash off
crows eye-lid.'
The Japs remained motionless; the
schnapper lines twined about their
fingers Not once did they look up at
the baying voiced Captain.
Heard every word l said," he con.
tinued, and they're digesting my
meaning like ostriches." Turning to
group of shell openers squatting for
ward besides their heaps Of rotting
undertone. One of them, a half-caste
Burghis man, seized an unopened
oyster and hurled it with boomerang
force through the air. The edge of
their shell struck the nearest Jap full
in the chest; another followed that
skated dangerously between their
heads.
There came no sound of protest
from the Japs; the man who bore the
shell scar en- his breast yawned de-
libe.ately. Slowly, laboriously, 1t
seemed they heaved on their tattered
jigger and the boomsail caught the
falling slant of wind
You don't seem overpolite to visl-
tors" ventured the agent when they
had gene. Were they really inter-
fering with your diversy'
Guess If you were losing $500
worth of pearl a month you'd think
60. The Japs have a right, maybe, to
sit on the spike of this continent and
fish, but II they're going to stick their
hooks into my air tuDes and smother
innocent men in twenty fathoms OF
water I'll uncover that machine gun
forrd 1t hates Japs like poison"
"You really think that some of your
Hivers are in league with the Japan
ks buyers?
Thinking won't stop $4,000 gem
sliding from 8 divers hand to a purse
at the end of a twenty fathom line,
sir. You've got to shoot at sight and
pursue your mental hallucinaticns af-
terward. These Japs are rushing
about the East like kids at a picnic"
he went on, huskily. They're mark
ing off things and places with pens
End cameras, and they want to see
pw many gates have been left open"
The agent stayed aboard the
schooner to be entertained by the
1ruffvoiced man named Hayes. The
business Of shell sampling over, they
eat In their chairs under the double
awning away from the oyster heaps
and listened to the babel Of voices that
difted across the Straits of Torres.
zhe northwest monsoon had fallen to
a threeknot zephyr, and the thirty
]uggers belonging to the Queensland
pearling fleet rolled In half-meon
formation on the eastern limit OF the
Vanderdecken Rank