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He said with a thin-lipped smile that he was pleased to meet Captain Douglas. Would he not sit? And have a cigar? Penwenn flipped open the lid with a generous flourish. No? Ah, excellent tobacco though. And what could he do for the captain?

Williams told him in few words, and showed a small handful of pearls, each wrapped separately in a little chamois bag, and an ounce or so of seed pearls. He mentioned the specimen shell on the Islander, out in the bay. He knew the elder Penwenn had occasionally gone into ventures of the kind, and Williams offered to show the way to the grounds and get the shell out if Penwenn would do the marketing and furnish a ship.

It was, if a little unusual, not an unreasonable offer. The main thing was that Penwenn could market the shell at a better advantage, and sell what pearls they found at three or more times the price a trading captain could demand, since such a captain would be at the mercy of swindling buyers; also Penwenn could furnish a hold that would bear off more than a little trading schooner, and the grounds could be stripped the first trip.