Cleveland County herald., 1920-10-28

ute 1 lamped tn she'll"
 The pearl, passing from hand to hand, had come round to the Boss again, who, stopping close to the fire light, examined it through small hand lens such as most pearl fishers carry. 'Pearlhunter," he safd, turning to the young man, "you shorely air lucky You've found y'ur pearl-an' a fortune it were"
 "Then it's you that's lucky" was the slow answer. "It's not mine."
 Had the others not been too excited, they might have noticed that his lips were drawn; his voice strained,
 The grizzled old river Boss grippeG his cG.loused hand shut upon the pearl; his seamy old face hardened and there sprang up in his deep-ses eyes an expression not unlike the ex9 pression in the eyes of a hawk when title to the prey in his claws is dis" puted But the expression passed. He thrust the pearl back into the young mans hand as though half afraid Of it.
 Say" he growled, "what do you think I am?"
 'It was taken from your boat, in waters you expected to fish tomorrow. You'd have found it anyway"
 The hawkish glover left the blue eyes of the older man, leaving him the frank-faced old Boss again. He I; frin
 "Well, I'll be damn'd!" he chuckled good-naturedly to himself, still study ing the other from under the edges or his eyes Say" he continued, look ing up frankly, "I hain't got dern bit more claim to it than I got to the Bank of Ingland If you fancy l have got claims, I hereby gives an conveys lem t you-an' if that hain't good law, it's square dealin' b'twixt man an man; an that's bettern law any day"
 "You mean it?'
 The younger man fingered the pearl as if it had suddenly assumed a new value
 "If you wan t insult me, jist let on like y'u think I don't"
 Hero-worshipers all, after the man. ner of their kind, the other pearl fish CTS, as if by common impulse, turned their attention from the pearl to the man that found it. He had become an object of wonder and curious admira- ton. No other achievement in the world could possibly have so distin- guished him in their eyes. Suddenly one of their number snatched off his battered hat and yelled:
 "Hooray fer tn Pearlhunter"
 The bluffs caught up tEe cheer that followed and flung it back in multi piled echoes, clear and far up and down the night-bound shore. The Boss, still hungry for the feel of the jewel, reached forth a grimy finger and meditatively stirred the pearl where it lay in the finders palm.
 "This ones rounder than them other two. An it's got shinier sheen. Course I cayn't say p'intedly, but I putt it at not less'n five thou san'."
 The Pearlhunter was restless. There was frail woman back in the cabin at Fallen Rock to whom the find ing of the pearl would mean more than to anybody else in the world. Ii would mean-the mans heart warmed with the thought, as his mind revert ed to the story of the afternoon back to the house on a hill that over looked the river-and good-by to tn, cough forever.
 But it was some time before tn first flush of excitement died down. I is not one camp in a thousand tha ever sees a Blue Moon. The value O it was still under discussion when tn, Boss happened to remember the fisi | still lying in the boat.
 9Th fish p he exclaimed. 9Th fiies'll be at 'em."
 And I must be getting home." The | Pearlhunter was quick to seize ths | chance
 Followed by the others, the Boss went down to the boat-not. however | until the Pearlhunter had torn a cor 
 ner out of the cloth spread down by the fire, wrapped the pearl up in it. and put it carefully away in his pocket.
 Insisting on relieving the Boss from rowing on the way back, he took his place at the oars and waited for the boat to be pushed off into the stream. But the Boss, with his hand upon the bow, stood hesitatingly before giving the final shove
 Shorty" he called to the man who had danced the hornpipe, and who was now gone back to the fire, "bring me my ol' shotgun an coat. 1 reckon I'll camp at Fallen Rock t'night."
 The Pearlhunter protested against his going to such trouble; but the