The mate reached out his hand.
“The proposition does credit to your heart, captain, and I join it without reservation. Now do you open it.”
The captain hesitated a moment and looked at the big shell curiously, as if afraid to make the investigation.
While thus employed, Storms called attention to the fact that the two shells were already slightly separated, as if the mollusk were gasping for air, which 152 could not be the case. Captain Bergen held up the huge shell and peeped inside. He did so but an instant, when he dropped it upon the sand, and exclaimed, with a pale face and trembling voice:
“It’s there!”
Mate Storms knew what it meant, and he in turn raised the oyster, ran his knife in carefully, worked hard for a minute, and then managed to get the two shells apart.