CHAPTER X.

THE PEARL DIVER'S PRICE. However placid our adventurous Englishman might seem to be, he was a man, like another, to be dazzled by the play of his fancy, rendering almost palpable to his mind all the jewelled dreams of _The Arabian Nights_, where pearls and other sea gems play so brilliant a part, and are measured out in bushels by the heroes of those prodigious tales. Now that he owned a fleet vessel, nothing seemed easier than to realise all these visions, and to succeed in obtaining the treasure indicated by Pepi…