110019    “We know all about that, load up with pearls!

110020    That’s because you people always want to start a war or something.

110021    All you’re worried about is money.

110022    And then you call it a crisis.”

110023    For a short while, Captain J. van Toch considered whether he ought to start discussing political economics, considering that that’s all they ever do talk about nowadays.

110024    But it’s too hot and languid to talk about that sort of thing here, anchored off Tana Masa; so the captain merely waved his hand and grumbled: “That’s what they say, pearls!

110025    In Ceylon they’ve got enough pearls piled up to last them for five years, on Formosa they’ve put a ban on gathering them — and so they say to me, Captain van Toch, go and see if you can find somewhere new to gather pearls.

110026    Go on down to those damned little islands, you might find whole bays full of oysters down there …”

110027    The captain pulled out his light-blue handkerchief and blew his nose in contempt.

110028    “Those rats in Europe, they think there’s still something to find down here, something they don’t already know about.

110029    God, what a bunch of fools they are!

110030    Next they’ll be wanting me to look up the Bataks snouts to see if they don’t have them full of pearls.

110031    New pearl fisheries!

110032    I know there’s a new brothel in Padang, but new pearl fisheries?

110033    I know these islands like my trousers, all the way from Ceylon down to that damned Clipperton Island, and if anyone thinks there’s anything new still left to find there that they can make any money out of, well good luck to them.