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This was how Williams had come to have dealings with Alan Penwenn.

In his prowling and dodging about, criss-crossing from one out-of-the-way place to another a little more out of the way, Williams had from time to time found oyster-beds well worth fishing. Fine shell was as good as gold ore if got to market; pearls better than nuggets, and far more scarce.

Williams had made trouble for many persons, and as he was known to most of them by sight he could not very well go into port himself and sell his shell, and if he turned it over to a trader on a share-and-share basis the chances were that the trader took what care he could not to meet with Williams again.

Now, feeling an unusually strange need for a comparatively large amount of money, Williams had ventured on a new plan. He hid the pirate under Captain Douglas, South Sea trader, and hoped to interest some man that had large affairs on the sea, and who could easily dispose of shell in whatever quantities it might be brought. As he was more likely to be recognised in an Australian port than elsewhere he had come to San Francisco, bringing a hundred pounds or so of good specimen shell.