CHAPTER XII.—A TRAP!
“We eat. Then we go get pearls,” decided Anai.
The boys, whose appetites had been sharpened by the trip, were not averse to this, and they made a hearty meal. After it the two native boys produced leaves in which betel nuts had been carefully wrapped up and offered them to Jack and Billy, both of whom declined them. But Anai and his friend began chewing the spicy nuts with great zest.
A canoe-length from where they floated a clear rill of water stole noiselessly down from above, mingling its sweet waters with the sea. After demolishing their betel nuts, the chewing of which is a well-nigh universal custom in the South Seas, the two native boys stood erect and then bound their long black hair in knots on the top of their heads.
Then, with a shout, they balanced gracefully for a second on the edge of the canoe and plunged over. They floated for a minute or two and then dived, after inhaling immense breaths. To the boys, watching the divers through the clear water, it looked as if they were literally climbing down, head first, through the pellucid depths.
Then they saw both the Kanaka lads wrenching oyster shells from their hold on the coral with furious energy. It seemed impossible that they could stay under water as long as they did, but at length, even their wonderful endurance gave out and, laden with shells, they shot back to the surface.
Reaching the canoe, the two divers hung almost exhausted on the outrigger, regaining their breath after they had thrown several oysters into the canoe, which the boys opened eagerly, but only two small pearls rewarded them. The two Kanaka boys showed plainly the stress of the long time they had stayed down. Their eyes were bloodshot and their faces suffused. Their veins stood out on their bodies like cords.
The boys begged them not to go down again, but they insisted.
“How often do you mean to dive?” asked Billy.
“One, maybe two, three time,” said Anai.