Adventure Magazine Cover, December 10, 1922 — page 92: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

86 Adventure brother’s keeper. What are you so ex- cited about; sit down.” Dockery sat back, watching Minot closely. “Don’t insinuate,” he said. ‘What did you do after your two years of hoboing?”’ Minot went on. “T had a cruise with the whalers; three years it was, and harder than anything I’m ever figuring on doing again. After that I had a hitch in the Navy. Atlantic Fleet. I was on the ‘Pennsy.’ She was flagship part of the time. I paid out bosn’s mate, first class. Then I played around the Canal Zone for a while, swim- ming and having a good time, until a fellow told me about the good money diving for shell. He and I went to Tahiti together and we dived with the fleets for a while. Then one day he never came up. I drifted back here to the gulf and here I been ever since. Now you got it, ain’t you?” “That’s very interesting. Let’s_ see; there’s just one point. You say you joined the whalers just after that row with the brakeman? I mean that was the end of your days on the road?” “Did I say that?” “Ves, I think you did; isn’t it right?” “Tt’s right enough.” “T see.” Dockery glowered again. ‘What do you mean, you see?” “T just wanted to get it straight. Thanks for your story. Now if you'll pour your- self another drink and get comfortable I’ll tell mine. I won’t bore you with the de- tails except where it’s necessary. In the first place, I was born in Borneo,‘ from parents nobody would brag about. But I got an education because-I wanted it and because a silly old maid wanted to give it to me. I’ve lived all over; the longest time in any one place was Paris. “T’m a pearl-diver; I’ve never done any- thing else. I saved up for twelve years for my two years in Paris. Now, I’m getting along. It’s doubtful if I could go back to regular diving. But Ill never have to, although’ I haven’t anything laid away for old age either. What I’m about to outline will explain why.”’ - Minot passed his fingers through his hair. “Regardez, je commence @ grisonner.”’ “Better talk English to me; I don’t know much of that Frog,” said Dockery. “T use it now and then just to remember I’m French—I said I was beginning to get gray, to impress you with my dignity. As I was saying, my business is diving for shell. I know the game from start to finish, and I came to my knowledge honestly. When I was seventeen I was diving in the Sulu Sea, along that archipelago northeast of Borneo. We were after shell only, of course, because the pearls from that vicinity are yellow around the edges and don’t bring much. “For that reason there wasn’t much in it for me, so I went to Australia and worked the west coast for a Chinese company. Man, that was diving! For a full six weeks we worked Useless Harbor, a little inlet in a place called Shark’s Bay. It’s different from the South Pacific. The shell there live in strong currents In narrow channels between islands, and they le on a hard bottom. What’s more, Shark’s Bay wasn’t named that for nothing. Our fleet left eight men there just during six weeks. We snagged’em and butchered ’em, but they came back just the same.* “But the company didn’t mind losing eight men, or even twenty men, for the haul they got in that place. It was a darb. You know the average run is one market- able pearl to every thousand oysters. Well, they claimed this percentage was cut nearly in half on those we brought up in Useless Harbor. That place was a mis- nomer all right. “After that I wandered around with several companies across the South Pacific. I worked most every known spot, I guess— the Navigator’s, Societies, Paumotas, Gam- bier, every place and with all kinds of peo- ple. And, by keeping my eyes open, I made a sizeable wad. After a while they began to sing the blues about the South Pacific. Said it was all fished out and a lot more such rot. “T was fool enough to fall for it, though, and now I’m —— gladI did. I went to the Persian Gulf, and I worked there for two years with the dirtiest bunch of nonde- scripts you ever saw. But it paid. They were so dumb they had lackeys carrying * The pearl fishermen, especially in the South Seas, go out several days before the beginning of the season and catch as many sharks as they can right around the bank they are going to work. They don’t kill these sharks, but wound them with knife slashes until they are practically helpless and then set them free. The supposition is that this scares away other marauding sharks. Superstition or not, few divers will work until this has been done. Gomichooks (E(0)