The Black Pearl Read Online Free PDF Page B

pointed. In a quiet voice he said, "El Diablo."
    Far astern I looked and saw the ghostly gleam of wing-like fins.
    "A manta," I said, "but not El Diablo. It is one that I have seen around before. Last week..."
    "It is El Diablo," the old man broke in.
    He lifted his paddle and dug hard at the water and the canoe changed direction.
    "We go into Pichilinque," he said.
    "But La Paz is not far," I said.
    "Too far," the old man answered. "We would never reach La Paz."
    Furiously he paddled and the canoe leaped forward. There was nothing I could say that would lessen the terror that had seized him. To him El Diablo was real and he was pursuing us to get back the pearl I had stolen. So I fell into the swing of his paddle and thought about the great Pearl of Heaven that I carried inside my shirt. I thought about the Sevillano and how his eyes would start out of his head when he saw it. And I wondered what my father would say and all the people of our town.
    We were going through the entrance of Pichilinque. The old man said, "Do you see El Diablo?"

    "No. I have looked and do not see him anywhere."
    At that moment a thunderous sound engulfed the canoe. It was as if the sky had fallen in upon us. Then mounds of water rose on both sides of us and met over our heads and filled the air with spray. There followed a groan, a rending of timbers^ and the canoe rose crazily and tipped and I was pitching slowly sidewise into the sea. As I fell my mind raced back to childhood. I heard my mother say, "The Manta Diablo is larger than the largest ship in the harbor. He has seven rows of teeth."
    I could not see the old man but from a distance I heard him shout. My first thought was the pearl. I thrust a hand inside my shirt, fumbled around and at last found it, and set out for the shore. The old man was there ahead of me. I crawled out of the water and got to my feet and held up the pearl to show him that it was safe.
    "Throw it back," he cried. "El Diablo is waiting for the pearl and he will not rest until he gets it. He is there now."
    The bay was quiet. I saw nothing except the splintered canoe drifting away in the moonlight. There was no sign of the manta, and yet I knew it was one of these sea creatures that had wrecked our canoe, by chance or otherwise, for they abound in the Vermilion Sea.
    "We have the pearl," I said, "and we are alive, if very wet, and if we go now we can reach La Paz by daylight."
    "I do not go there with the pearl," the old man said. "I stay until morning to find the canoe. And the pearl belongs to you. I did not find it and it is not mine."
    He drew back from me as if I held a serpent in my hand.
    "You will change your mind," I said. "The pearl has great value."
    "Never will I change my mind," he answered.
    "There are three pearls lying in the shell on the beach," I said. "I forgot them."
    "Those I will throw into the sea," he said.
    "As you please," I said.
    "And the big one you should throw there also," the old man said. "If you do not, señor, someday the Manta Diablo will have it back and your life with it. Of this I warn you."
    We said farewell to each other and I started down the shore toward the lights of the town, holding the pearl tight in my hand. A rough trail led to La Paz and three leagues long, but I was there before daybreak.
    I went first to the office of Salazar and Son and bolted the door behind me. I unwrapped the pearl and placed it on a piece of velvet and laid it in the scales. The pearl weighed 62.3 carats.
    Then I left the office and walked up the Malecón, the pearl hidden in my shirt. Dawn was breaking over the mountains, but there were people on the streets, so I greeted them as I usually do and even stopped to talk to the woman who sells hot chocolate outside the calabozo.
    Our house is on the plaza and has a big iron gate, which is locked at night from the inside. I rang the bell and when one of the Indians opened it I said good morning and strolled to the kitchen and ate a large bowl of