Jack Redland was on the deck of the "Heron" opening shells. He was alone, the others had left him to finish the work, and gone off in the dinghies. He saw them in the distance, and watched the divers disappearing into the depths of the bay. Resting for a few minutes his eyes roamed over the beautiful scene spread out around him. In this land locked harbour everything seemed at peace, undisturbed by the dwellings of men, as it probably had been for ages upon ages. Their schooners were probably the first to enter, yet it was strange such a place had not been discovered before. The hills round the bay were well wooded, trees growing almost from base to summit, and the white silvery sand sparkled in the brilliant sunlight. It was hot, and yet there was sufficient breeze to render it pleasant. There was hardly a ripple on the clear water of the bay and the sky was dazzlingly blue. He saw very few signs of bird life, but the big black dots on the beach he knew were turtle, and he saw the males splashing about in the water. Fortunately there were no sharks in the bay, at least they had seen none, nor had Jacob Rank during his enforced stay there. The divers were, therefore, quite safe from these monsters, which sometimes cause shocking havoc amongst them. Jack settled down to work again, opening the large shells with considerable dexterity, and noticing how carefully the pearls were hidden. Out of curiosity, he scraped the inner coating of one of the larger shells and found layer upon layer of nacre, or mother of pearl, which crumbled away from the knife. It seemed as though the mollusc had deposited these layers one after another to protect itself from attacks, and as there were no signs of even the smallest seeds beneath the outer layer, he came to the conclusion the pearls must be a kind of peculiar growth, perhaps a disease in the fish. However, he did not trouble much about this, his object was to find pearls, and his curiosity being satisfied, he opened another shell. The one he held in his hand had a golden edge of a far deeper colour than most of the others. It was also a peculiar shape, the centre standing out for all the world like a bruise on the forehead caused by a heavy blow. He felt it, and its perfect roundness made him wonder what had caused it. He opened the shell, and as he withdrew the knife it shut again with a snap. "I'll have you next time," he said to himself, and managed to cut the muscles. After cleaning out the fish he examined the shell carefully. It seemed quite dark in the centre, and this struck him as curious. He dug round it with the sharp point of the blade and in a short time a large lump came away from the shell. There was evidently an outer coating, and this he removed, when to his utter astonishment he saw a black egg shaped pearl of great size.