The JOHN T. RICHARDS, it
appeared, had met the fate of other island schooners.
"Dickinson piled her up on Palmerston Island," Dodd
announced.
"Who were the owners?" inquired one of the club-men.
"O, the usual parties!" returned Loudon. "Capsicum and
Co."
A smile and a glance of intelligence went round the
group; and perhaps Loudon gave voice to the general
sentiment by remarking--
"Talk of good business! I know nothing better than a
schooner, a competent captain, and a sound reliable
reef."
"Good business! There's no such a thing!" said the
Glasgow man. "Nobody makes anything but the
missionaries--dash it!"
"I don't know," said another; "there's a good deal in
opium.
"It's a good job to strike a tabooed pearl-island--say,
about the fourth year," remarked a third, "skim the
whole lagoon on the sly, and up stick and away before
the French get wind of you."
"A pig nokket of cold is good," observed a German.
"There's something in wrecks, too," said Havens. "Look
at that man in Honolulu, and the ship that went ashore
on Waikiki Reef; it was blowing a kona, hard; and she
began to break up as soon as she touched.
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