The Stained Pearl
Whence came it? No man knows. On the full tide it came to land in the pocket of a drowned man's coat. Tonio slew Guido for it, and was killed in his turn by Pietro, who, fleeing, came to the ship of Captain Ray and got employment as a seaman. Mate Hawkins saw the gem and coveted it, but Captain Ray took the pearl, "for safe keeping," as he said. And in a quarrel he struck down the mate and hid the body in a great sea chest. Stowed away in the hold was Paul, who loved the captain's daughter. He it was who found Hawkins near death, and his him in the hold, whence he reappeared as a ghost to Captain Ray. In his sleep the captain had hidden the pearl in a shotgun, and with that strange bullet, in his terror, he fired at Mate Hawkins and killed him. So the great pearl was lost forever, and the girl found her lover again amid death and desolation.
