"Me? Oh, I forgot. I am Biddles. You may have heard of me down in Perth?"
"I believe I have," I answered. "You are the man whom the American skipper mistook for a pirate, and who, up in King Sound——"
"I see you have my history all right, lad; but there goes the dinner-gong, so come along and sample Broome fare."
In the company of the light-hearted pearlers the time passed very quickly. It transpired that I had known in Queensland some of their comrades who had drifted down country from the Gulf pearling-grounds, and being well accustomed to meeting all sorts of people, I readily grasped the little peculiarities of my hosts, and soon became on the best of terms with them all.
"I think we'll go now, boys," said Wilcox, some time about midnight. "You fellows that are sober can see after the other boys, and we two will get aboard the Thetis."
"Why, don't you stay here?" I cried.
"Not likely. There wouldn't be an ounce of blood left in us by morning. The mosquitoes here are A 1; but can you swim?"
"A little. Why?"
"Because I expect you will have to. You see we don't care to give the mob a chance of going aboard while we are on shore; so we never use our dinghys."