"He needn't know that you found it at all. I will say that I found it and want to know what it is worth."
"Well, under those circumstances you may take it; but you may make up your mind to be laughed at."
Bob folded up the pearl and put it into his pocket, and told himself that unless he had shot wide of the mark Hank's find was worth ten or fifteen dollars at least. He had never heard of pearls being found so far south. He knew that there were some in New Jersey, and some others in Wisconsin, that they were being worked at the rate of twenty-five thousand dollars each year, and he didn't see why it was that pearls were not found further south. In that case Hank's fortune was made, for he was the only one who knew where the pearls were, provided some one else did not suspect him—his father, for instance—and watch him to see where he went and what he did to increase his income.
"You say there are plenty more pearls where this one came from?" said Bob at length.
"Why, I have seen as many as twenty-five or thirty scattered along the banks of that creek, but I never thought to look at them, for I did not think they were worth any money," replied Hank. "This one was found out in plain sight, and so I took it up and put it into my pocket."
"Well, I just want to tell you that you had better keep mum in regard to these pearls. If they turn out valuable you want them all yourself, don't you?"
"I should say so. There's nobody needs them worse than I do."
"You just keep still until I see the jeweller," said Bob. "It may be that your fortune is made."
"Oh, I don't hope for that. If I can make ten dollars out of that one you have in your pocket, well and good. I don't know that I can find the others, anyway."
"Well, you can try, can't you?"