Pearls

by Colin Falconer

  'I hear you were bothering my Anna this morning.'

  Simeon got warily to his feet. 'I just said hello, boss.'

  'That isn't how I heard it.' Lacey reached into his pockets and threw a roll of notes onto the bed. 'That's the money for your lay and the commission I owe you on pearls. I want you out of the camp by tonight.'

  Simeon looked at the money, then back at Lacey. 'But I've been taking a lot of shell, boss. Nearly three tonnes, last time out.'

  'I want you out by tonight,' Lacey repeated and walked out.

  Simeon stared at the wad of money on the ground. He couldn't believe it. These white bosses, treating him like a bit of trash. This one wasn't any better than they were. Well, what if I get more money than you, he thought.

  What then?

  ***

  Nosiro Tanaka had come a long way in six years. His store and his gambling den had supported him through the lean years of the Kaiser's World War but his ambitions went beyond mere survival. He had set about acquiring an education. He had learned to read English better than some of the veranda pearlers, and learned a little about commercial law.

  Now the European war was over the industry had started to recover. As newly indentured Japanese divers arrived in Broome he gave them free advice on their rights and privileges and even negotiated better wages and commissions for them. Having won their trust, he persuaded them to bank with him, and then used the deposits to finance other business ventures. He was always scrupulously honest in his dealings, because he knew a reputation was more valuable than a quick dollar. His growing influence also gave him leverage to obtain sizeable loans from the banks.

  He quickly acquired a substantial interest in the Chinatown, including a laundry, a brothel, two more gaming parlours and a lemonade shop. He was elected to the committee of the Japanese Club and within two seasons he was one of the most influential foreigners in the town.

  He had also put on a lot of weight. This corpulence was a source of great pride, an ostentatious display of his growing prosperity. He started to dress in white linen suits like the veranda pearlers, even though they could be worn just once before the dust and mud stained them orange. So he had them laundered each week in Singapore, just as they did. He had even taken to wearing a fob watch.

  He no longer ran the general store himself. He hired his young nephew, Siosuki Hanaguchi, who had recently arrived from Japan. When he looked back on his life he congratulated himself on how far he had come from the little fishing village in Wakayama prefecture where he had been born. That day in the Lascepede Reefs had not been his day to die.

  ***

  One afternoon he was making up accounts in the office at the rear of the store. The fleets had returned briefly for the Bon Matsuri festival and business had been unusually brisk compared to the rest of the season, when Chinatown was virtually deserted. Nosiro pushed aside the curtain and told him there was a white gentleman wishing to speak with him.

  Tanaka got to his feet, consulting the gold fob watch in his waistcoat as he came out of the office to demonstrate to his caller that he was a busy man.

  'Yes sir, what I can do for you?' he said, pleasantly.

  'Good God almighty, but you've grown fat, man. And where in the name of heaven did you get that suit?'

  Tanaka's jaw dropped. 'Cam-ran-san!'

  'Aye, it's me. I did nae expect to see you dressed up like a pox doctor's clerk. Did you find yourself a pearl, Mister Tanaka?'

  ***

  Cameron had changed very little. His face was leaner, and there was a haunted look about him that not been there before. But in his whites and his Panama hat he reminded Tanaka of an English lord. It was only the soft Scottish brogue that spoiled the effect.

  Tanaka led him into his office and sent Siosuki to fetch iced lemonades from the shop next door.

  Cameron loosed his tie. 'I forgot how hot it is in this infernal place.'

  'You are away a long time, Camran-san.'

  'Aye, and I hear you've been busy in my absence. They tell me you own half of Chinatown now.'

  Tanaka bowed his head to accept the compliment. 'I have very humble business. But now. You tell me news. I do not think I see you no more. I think maybe this Kaiser mens shoot you.'

  'Aye well, the bastards sunk me at Jutland but I dinnae take it personally.'

  'Am most happy to see you, Camran-san.'

  Cameron shook his head. 'If it was nae for the sign above the door, I would nae have recognised you. If you got on board a lugger now, you'd sink the damned boat.'

  Tanaka grinned. 'Gods have smiled at me.'

  'If you say so, Mister Tanaka. But when I asked after you at the hotel, they told me you were a conniving little bastard with your fingers in more pies than the town baker.'

  Tanaka smiled.

  Siosuki entered with two tall glasses of lemonade, thick with shaved ice. He bowed and went out.

  Cameron sipped his drink gratefully. 'It's strange to be back here again.'

  'Why you come back?'

  'The pearls.'

  'Pearls. Not so many, no more.' He lowered his eyes. 'Broome change very much.'

  'In what way?'

  'Henry Nilan' die this four year. Son now big boss at Nilan' Company. Own cattle and sheep station as well as many lugger. Last year he buy big red Buick motor car. He is number one man in Broome now.'

  Cameron nodded. He took out a silver cigarette case and offered one to Tanaka. After he had lit their cigarettes, he said: 'And what of his family?'

  Tanaka smiled to cover his embarrassment at this question. 'Has fine son now. They call him Jamie. They say he is very clever. Very dutiful to his mother and father.'

  'Aye. Well.'

  'So what you do now, Camran-san?'

  'I intend to get myself another boat. My pearl is still out there, waiting for me.'

  'May gods bring you success,' Tanaka said, and added delicately: 'You have seen boat you wish to buy?'

  'I've nae money for purchase or lease. That's my problem.'

  Tanaka smiled again. 'I see.'

  'I've nae come here to beg, if that's what you're thinking. I've nae doubt the banks will extend me a line of credit.'

  'Of course.' They both knew that without collateral the banks would do no such thing. 'But I not forget that if not for you, I will be with ancestors now. Maybe you do me honour, let me pay back this great debt.'

  'If that's what you wish, Mister Tanaka.'

  'To owe another man a life is a great burden, so sorry. Let me help you. You have a crew?'

  'Wes Redonda as bosun, and a young Manilaman called Espada as number one diver. I dare say the rest of the crew will nae be that hard to find.'

  'You will dive yourself?'

  'Aye, why not? I'll nae get another good diver this end of the season.'

  'With respect, white mens not dive no more. Too dangerous. Let proper dive man take risk.'

  'It's too expensive. I was lucky to get Espada.'

  'Perhaps Tanaka can help you. Have nephew here in Broome, perhaps you try him as number two dive man. He is good boy, very keen to learn.'

  Cameron shrugged. He could hardly refuse a request from the man who had just bankrolled his boat. 'Aye, why not?'

  Tanaka nodded. 'Good. Tonight you come to my house and we make celebration. May gods smile at you, Camran-san.'

  'Aye. It's about time they did.'

  Chapter 19

  That evening Cameron was sprawled in a sulky on the way to Tanaka's whitewashed house in the Chinatown. There were still just only a few cars in Broome and Cameron immediately recognised Niland's red open-topped Buick from Tanaka's description.

  As it roared past along the rutted red dirt of Dampier Terrace, Cameron glimpsed a pale, beautiful face beneath a wide-brimmed bonnet and a small sombre looking boy with dark curls. He saw George too, imperious beneath his solar topee. He had a moustache now, and looked plump and prosperous.

  Cameron twisted around in the sulky for another glimpse of
her but the Buick had disappeared in a cloud of fine, red dust.

  'Must take care now,' Tanaka told him later, when he recounted the incident. 'A man can live only now. Not possible to go back. So sorry. I don't think so.'

  'Aye, I ken that. But I cannae forget either.'

  They talked about the war and pearls and the future. While they talked Tanaka's daughter, Fumiko, brought them green jasmine tea and then served them sashimi - strips of raw tuna marinaded in soy bean sauce, a delicacy - and wild rice. Afterwards they got drunk together on Suntory whiskey.

  Afterwards he decided to walk back to his room at the Continental Hotel. Why did I come back? he thought, staring at the moon on Roebuck Bay. Because I still think I can make my fortune here - or because of her?

  He supposed you didn't have to be a Cambridge scholar to work that out. And what good would it do? She was married to the most prosperous man in the whole town.

  Go on, cause trouble, it's all you're good for.

  I'd have come back anyway, he argued with himself. I'm going to find my pearl and make my fortune yet. And I have a start, thanks to Mister Tanaka. For the moment, he was broke. He had left the Royal Navy with next to nothing and spent the little he had on his passage back here. He had better find some good shell pretty damned quick or he would end up sleeping on the beach.

  ***

  Siosuki Hanaguchi had been born on the island of Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture, a narrow neck of land south west of Tokyo. When he was ten years old the men of his village had rowed out to the bay where a whale was giving birth. They had caught the calf in their net, but the enraged mother had then charged the whaleboat, tipping the men into the water. They had all drowned in their own net, along with the mother whale and her calf. Among those drowned on that cold, grey morning were Hanguchi's father and his three brothers.

  Hanaguchi and his mother and sisters were reduced to begging to stay alive. His uncle in Broome had sent back money to support them, writing glowing accounts about the opportunities for a young man to make money beneath the ocean. Hanaguchi resolved that when he was old enough he would go to Broome and become a diver, too.

  So far it had been a bitter disappointment.

  He had been in the town for nearly two months and he was still minding his uncle's store in the Chinatown. The closest he had come to the sea was the end of the long jetty. He hated Australia. Taiji was mountainous, and green, Broome was flat and red; Taiji's hills were covered with ash, sugi pines, elms and larch, Broome was surrounded by an endless desert of pindan scrub and monstrous elephant trees; Taiji had cool, misty waterfalls and hidden valleys, Broome was dry, dusty and suffocatingly hot.

  But Hanaguchi was determined to see it through. He would not be his uncle's lackey forever. He would make his own fortune and he would never have to beg again.

  And here was his chance. His uncle had arranged for him to start as try diver on a lugger called the Roebuck, for a white pearler called McKenzie. He would get four pounds a month, plus a lay bonus for shell and a commission on any pearls he found. It was not much, but it was a beginning. He received three months wages in advance before they sailed. His uncle knew that McKenzie was pressed for money, so on Uncle Tanaka's advice, he offered to loan it back to him at ten per cent interest.

  He was surprised when his new employer accepted the offer. The next morning the Roebuck left Broome and set sail for the pearling grounds.

  Chapter 20

  'Did you hear the news?' George said to her over lunch the next day.

  'What news is that, George?' she said, though she knew perfectly well what he meant.

  'McKenzie's back in town. He's signed a lease on one of Todd's luggers and he's been in Chinatown been looking for crew. Don't tell me you hadn't heard?'

  'No one mentioned it at bridge club,' she lied.

  'You will remember what we talked about.'

  'What was that, George?'

  'About Jamie. I don't want him to know. Not yet anyway.'

  'He's bound to find out some time or other.'

  'Just not now. When he's old enough.' He picked up his solar topee and walked out, the screen door slamming behind him.

  ***

  It was cold on the sea floor and the divers wore as much insulation under their diving dress as they could. Siosuki put on two suits of flannel pyjamas and two pairs of long, thick, woollen socks. He had wrapped another piece of wide flannel, almost four yards long, around his abdomen. Over all this he had put on a pair of woollen drawers and a heavy woollen sweater that reached almost to his knees.

  By the time he was dressed he was gasping in the tropical heat. It would be a blessed relief to get into the water.

  Wes helped him into the tough canvas diving dress, the cuffs at the ankles and wrists well greased. Then came the heavy lead-soled boots and the great copper corselet that fitted over the top of the suit, attached to the canvas with butterfly nuts.

  'Hokkay?' Wes said.

  It was as much as he could do to stand up. His knees buckled under the weight of the corselet. He thought he was going to faint from the heat. He lumbered to the gunwale, desperate to get into the water. He knew Cameron and Simeon, his number one, were watching him.

  I must not fail, he thought. I have to find bags and bags of shell. No more begging.

  He stepped over the rope ladder and paused while Wes hung the heavy lead weights down his back and over his chest, then checked and re-checked his air pipe and lifeline. Finally he picked up the heavy sea-greened copper helmet and placed it over his head. Wes screwed the face glass into place.

  Suddenly he was no longer part of the world of light and clear sound. The hissing of the air filling his suit echoed around inside the cavernous helmet; the smells of salt and diesel and fish were abruptly cut off.

  He balled his fists tight around the rope ladder to stop them shaking and steeled himself for the coming ordeal. He stepped off the ladder and into the ocean.

  At first the air in his suit held him upright in the water. Then he remembered he had to adjust the large air valve screw on the outside of his helmet. He closed it down with his right hand and sank in an explosion of bubbles into another world.

  ***

  Siosuki stood on the sandy bottom both mesmerised by the beauty of what he saw around him. He was on a wide underwater plain, the sea grass waving with the current like wheat in a field. A cliff loomed from the murky green ahead of him, clusters of sponges in soft pinks and aquamarine growing up the vertical walls.

  Red and white angel fish darted in and out of the shadowed grottoes. A sentinel fish peered out at him behind the waving tendrils of an underwater plant.

  For a moment he was transfixed by this alien world. The dismal green light and the strange murky cliffs horrified him. His hand tightened around the lifeline. One tug and they would haul him up, back to safety.

  I must force my way past this fear, he thought. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life standing behind the counter in your uncle's shop! You must think only about the shell.

  He took a few faltering steps and, finding nothing, tugged on the line and gave the command to drift.

  ***

  But finding shell was not as easy as he thought. There were none down here, not a single one! He searched the reef and cliff face without finding anything. In no time Wes signalled that it was time to come up and when he came out of the water there was not a single shell in the string bag at his waist. No one said anything to him as Wes helped him out of his suit. Afterwards he sat down alone by the mast, smoking a cigarette, ignoring Wes' whispered words of consolation.

  Simeon was already on the bottom and had sent up his first full bag of shell. Twice more Siosuki went down and twice more came up empty-handed. In that time Simeon had added three more full bags to his pile.

  The sun was getting low in the sky when he went down for his final dive. He was oblivious to the strange green world around him now, out of his mind with frustration and rage at his own failure. He
must at least find one shell. Just one!

  He drifted from cliff to cliff, searching desperately. Suddenly he saw something glinting among the weed to his right. It was there for only a moment, like a mirror flashing in the sun, and then was gone. He lumbered towards it.

  It was a pearl oyster, a big one. It had opened its shell for a moment to feed and what Siosuki had seen was the mother of pearl sheen inside the shell. The outside was so encrusted with weed and sea plants that otherwise he would never have spotted it.

  He prised it from the reef with his knife and placed it almost reverently in his net bag. Suddenly there were oysters all around him. Where a moment ago there had been only coral and rock and weed he could now see a harvest of shell. He felt like a blind man who had suddenly regained his sight.

  His heart pounding with triumph and relief, he started to fill the bag at his waist.

  ***

  Simeon scowled as another bag of shell came up from below and was thrown on Siosuki's pile. Their new try diver was becoming more expert every day. Soon his pile would match, or even surpass, his own. The Japanese was going deeper, and staying down longer, than he ever could. At this rate he wouldn't be number one diver for much longer.

  These little yellow bastards would take over the whole industry one day.

  He got up from his stool. 'I'm going down for another spell,' he told Hassan, his tender.

  'You're still on your break.'

  'I'm going down! Do as you're told!'

  Cameron looked up from opening shell. 'Your shift's not due for another half an hour, Mister Espada.'

  'I'm all right, boss. I want to go back down.'

  Cameron smiled. 'He's keeping you on your toes, isn't he?'