THE PEARL OF THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 59, 3 April 1909, Page 3

THE PEARL OF THE SEA.

THE STORY*OF A STRANGE JEWEL. In a haze oi crimson and gold the great sun rose over the sea. Mrs. DelJinton stood with her hands clasped behind her head, and her small, graceful ligurc drawn up to its full height, watching him rise. She was on the seashore, and the tiny, creamytipped waves lapped gently on the shingle at her feet. Presently she stirred and wended liel' way to the black rocks under the curving cliffs of the bay, hoping, from hei , elevated position, to obtain a bettet •view of the sunrise. But the wonderful king of the heavens was soon forgotten. For as Mr*. Dellinton stepped care, fully among the pools of the rocks, she noticed one pool in which everything | seemed to be dead, The seaweed fastened to the rock lioaled dead and withered oil top of tlie peculiarly dark water; the tiny carcase of a young iish bol/bed a'bout listlessly on the surface; and through the dark, strange depths, dead crabs and such-like sea-animals might be .seen stretched motionless on the sandy lloor.

The asipcct of this pool was .so strange that Mrs. Dellinton paused and knelt down on the rocks beside il.

-She "peeled closely into the dark., greenish-purple 'water, but at lirst she haw lujthiug that was not dead. Then, from among the withered seaweed a queer animal, of a species Mrs. Delfinton had never seen or heard of before, Kwam heavily out into the middle of the pool. Mrs. DeltiuUm's eyes grew very wide, and her lips parted in surpri.se, for never had she seen a lish so peculiar as this I in all her wanderings on the shore. ' It reminded her of a tortoise, for its back was covered with a shell; (but un.like that of a ("rtoise, strange animal was small—a deep seagreen in "color, and perfectly round in .shape. A pair of thick, strong lius appeared in the place where legs should be. its head resembled a tortoise's, save that Us snout was pointed; and its eyes were a peculiar, dull-red hue. ' "'Whatever can this strange creature lie," thought Mrs. Delfinton; and, wish'ing to examine U closer. she dipped one 'dainty hand into the dark ipool and caught the awkward, lumbering animal.

As her hand touched it the creature drew in its head and lins. but when she laiid it out on the sea-wet rocks beside the pool, it thrust them forth again with a gasping, choking noise. Then Mrs. Delfinton uttered a cry of surprise and delight. Fastened to this strange creature's Hat head was a beautiful pearl. In size it was about as large as an ordin ar v m a rbl e, periee 11 y ro un d, smooth, and gleaming as satin, and h color the dark Wue-green of a stormy sea. Mr*. Delfinton was not naturally cruel, Init she waß determined to have that peart. ISo, without any regard for the creature's feelings, she drew her penknife from her pocket, and. in spite of its struggles, ruthlessly severed the lovely 1 pearl from its head. A peculiar, dark fluid, a deep, purple-green color like the •waters of the pool, flowed from tho wound where the jewel had been, and, •with a last agonised wriggle, the poor little animal lay motionless. Mi's. Delfinton (pushed the lifeless htnly back into the siileiu pool, and it immediately sank lo the bottom.

She tlien turned her attention to the pearl lying in the palm of her hand. The part that had grown 011 the animal's head was soft and moist, and perfectly white in color, 'but. was vi-iMy loudening every minute, and as it hardened the sea-green color crept slowly into the white patVh. At the end of ten minutes it had become a perfectly round, hard, blue-green globule How beautiful it was. with the sun's early rays illumining its gleaming, sat iny 1 surface!' Xever ■before had there been a pearl so strange, so beautiful! .Mrs. Deltinton pictured herself with pardonable pl'idc, flic pearl gleaming amid the laces of her new white balldress. as the centre of a group of envious admirers, recounting to theui the story of how she had found her jewel.

Happening to look up at this niomeni. she caught sight of a man s tall figure, clad in a grey Norfolk suit, crossing the beach towards her. Ais she turned away to meet liini. her eyes rested a minute 011 the silent pool. 'Anil great were her horror and astonishment to find that the dark, purple-green water was now black as ink. Then, with the pearl clasped tightly in her hand, she stepped down from the rocks and ran across the glistening sands to her husband. "Oh, Herbert!" she cried joyously. -What do you think 1 have found?'' ""I'm sure I cannot tell, little girl," he answered, kissing her fondly. l '\ou are always finding .strange things on this 'Uea«-h." "(iucss!" .she commanded laughingly, holding her hands behind her. "It's something very small."' "I'm no good at guessing," lie answered ruefully. "You will have to tell me." Then, with a Hash of inspiration: "Perhaps it's a sea-gull's egg."' "No, oh no! Nothing half so common or uninteresting," she replied tantalUiiagly. "lu fact. 1 don't believe, there is another in the world like it." "I cannot possibly think," he pleaded. '•Very well. then. I will show you.'' she answered. and, opening her hand, .disclosed the glistening pearl. [ He uttered all exclamation of surprise, look the strange jewel, and looked at I It,

''What a gruesome thing!" he said. '"Gruesome? Not a bit of it!" she replied, still laughing. "1 think it is most strange and beautiful, don't you?" "Yes, very pretty and— er—very unusual, but still—T don't like it! There is something horrible, fascinating about lil, and f should strongly advise you to throw It B>ack again into the sea—that is, if you wi?lv to please ine,"

I "But why?" persisted .Mrs. Dellinton. I I don't think it as tii< i least bit horrid —it's lovely, and evenbudv will envy me when they see it. And i shan't throw it into the sea -it would be perfect waste, as it tan do nobodv any good there.''

*"\ en- uel), don't, my dear, it may l)e all right, and il is, an doubt, only 'prejudice that makes mo feci siicli horroy at sight oj it. Keep il by nil means, it it pleases you. But where did you get it?" Mrs. Dellinion described her encounter with the strange creature. I "I m afraid 1 killed the poor little thing in culling off the pearl,'' she added halt-regretfully. " !'•Mii 1 lill]<■ beggar!" reflected Mr. Dellinton. "Hut never mind. Mo doubt it is hup,pier as it is now than living alone in tnat ghostly, dark pool. 1 won- I der what made everything in it die like! that?"

Mrs. Dellinton got all and more thin the admiration and envy she had ex-pet-ted when she appeared at the next •ball, the bine-green pearl shimmering

among her laves. Nobody had ever seen anything like it before, either for color or brilliance, and one and all expressed a wish that they might also be a liu-kv Under. Mr. 'Dellintou watched his pretty, childish '"wife with an amused smile, and thought i'how excited and sweet she looked. Towards the end of the ball, however, he felt a iight. trembling touch ou his arm. ;ind turned to see his wife beside him. -He started violently on perceiving i her altered appearance. Tlu? small face,!

so rosy and smiling a few hours ago, was now weary, white, and drawn; the bright color wan gone, and in its place an awful, greenish tinge had spread over tiler pale features. Her vyes were wide ;and wild, and though she fixed them •straight upon his startled countenance, they did not seem to sec him. lie seized her listless hand; it "Was cold and damp. "What is it, darling?" he asked anxiously, slipping a supporting arm round her wafcl, "Tell me quickly what is the matter!" ''Home," idle muttered drowsily, as | 'though forced to speak in spite of her'self. "Take me home—please! I'm ill, I think!" ■' ''Certainly, dearest, you shall go at once," he answered. All the way home Mr. Dellintou leant heaviily against her husband's shoulder, a lid made no answer to his enquiries concerning her condition. When at last the -carriage stopped "before their own house, and he gently lifted her out, she seemed to he in a trance, her eyes wide and unseeing. Mr. Dcliinton was seriously alarmed. 'He despatched a servant to fetch the •doctor without loss of time, and helped 'his wife to her bed, where she lay, a piteous spectacle in her crushed white "ball-dress, the sea-green pearl still glimmering on her noek. The doctor shook his head dolefully "when lie had seen her; he could make nothing of Her case. Some struuge, unknown malady seemed to have seized 'her! He returned home, promising to send some medicine .which he believed | would relieve her. 'Her husband administered it to her when it arrived, hut it seemed to have no effect.

All night he sat beside her, watching her in silence, while a terrible fear struggled within him. All the time she lay, muttering to herself in a moaning whisper, her fixed, unseeing eyes staring upward at the icetiliug. And nestling amid her laces the stVange pearl of the sea glimmered in the lamplight with a sinister glow. Towards dawn she became conscious. The iixed, awiful light died out of her eyes, and, turning them upon liim, she motioned him to 'bend closer. He did'* so, and she spoke in a hoarse, gasping, whisper. 1 - ''Oh. Herbert!" she moaned, her hands fumbling- weakly with the awful green pearl. "1 am dying'. Take it from me—the pearl—it—has' killed me! J should have thrown it away when you lold me. it ha* killed me!" And she ft 11 back with a low cry.

He remained staring at hev in dazed, frightened way, knowing her dvad, yet hardly realising it. Then, almost mechanically, he stretched out a listless hand and unfastened the pearl from the neck oi the dead girl, around which it hung suspended from a, gold chain. WiLh pale lace and strained. Jixed eves, he sat. staring at it as it lay in his hand, as though under the (power of noine strange fascination.

As he looked, something—he knew not wih« I—putl—put an awful thought into his mind, and with paiin-ful eagerness he began to examine the pearl, lie turned it over so as to I>ring uppermost the side which had rested against his wife's neck, and as he did so lie uttered a half* terrified, half-exultant cry. Glittering with a peculiar phosphorescent brightness in the palm of his hand rested a tiny drop, the size of a pin's head, of strange, purplegreenish liquid, lie gazed at it a moment, then carefully wiped it oil", dipping his hand into water alter having done so. Then again he took up the pearl, and there sure enough on the s-'ide that had lain against the dead girl s skin was a tiny black, invisible hole, lie pressed his thumb upon it, and on moving it away again, discovered that lie had drawn another drop of queer, green fluid from the pearl. "It is ;iti 1 suspected!'" he muttered through tightly-clenched teeth. "It is as I suspected!"

All was rlear to hiim now. The creature that Mrs. Dellinton had found in the pool was some unknwn species ot poisonous animal which had caused th'i 'death of everything in the pool. The poison was evidently stored in thc»pearl 'that crowned its head, and the touch of 'living tlesh undoubtedly drew out the poison a** with a magnet, thus in some 'manner enabling the t-reatut'e at "will either to open the hole utiul let uoit tile poison or keep it closed. To-niglit was the lirst time his wife had worn the fatal pearl, and the little hole which emitted the poison on coming in contact with her warm skin had been drawn open and let out the poison that had soaked into her blood and killed her. The strange little animal, whose life—harmless or otherwise—she had so j ruthlessly destroyed, waa terribly j avenged! Mr. Dellinton rose, and with stern, set face, took the pearl that had caused so much trouble and sorrow, and. holding it icarefully, so that the poison-hole should not come near his lingers, wended his way down to the beach. The cool breeze fanned his brow, the j laughing waves beat restlessly on the p-hore; sea-birds screamed joyously as they skimmed over the vipjding surface of the sea: it was a gladsome, beautiful moniiing. but what cared he for such things now? Only the other day she had stood there with hint, looking out to *ca, aud now—she was gone, gone for «»vei*!

lie did not seem to see the .sun, nor the sands, nor the bal/bling blue waves; for him life wais no longer sweet! lie reached the l>ro\vn. jagged rocks, and without dillieulty found the pool. 'Jhe tide did not rise high enough t'» reach it, and the still waters remained black and horrible. ' He took n last -look at the terrible, sea-green ipearl. glimmering like satin 'oetweea his lingers. " "do back, accursed pearl!" lie mut'tercd through his tightly-shut teeth. •*lio baek whence you came! Aipl may you never be found again to wrecli other iivesas you have wrecked njinel" Tliep 'he dropped it. and, with <i last Hash of shimmering Uglit, it disappeared 'beneath the Ihlack wateiv; of the dark, dead ipool. Pausing a moment-, his eyes wandered gloomily to the hazy, indistinct line where sea and sky Beemed to meet. As he turned to retrace his steps, what was hi* surprise to discover that the pearl had re-absorbed it«s native poison, and t'lie waters of the pool, a moment before «so dark and gloomy, were now as -pure and -clear as crystal, and gleaming rosily in the light of the vising sun. 'Marguerite Hills, iu the Novel ! Magazine.