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96
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THE PEARL TRADER
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crashed and they had ordered another, which had just arrived from the States C.O.D. But when they had tried to raise the money for it, they found that the Manila folk had lost interest
in aeroplanes, so they had begun to tour the islands to see whether
there was anyone with vision and guts to pay for the new machine which
the shipping company still held.
I
would allow no one to question my vision, and as for the rest—well,
they seemed to be in the right place. I said, "Noomy, I'll pay the
dues, the machine to remain my security till I am repaid, and
fifty-fifty as to profits."
He
kicked and said I was awfully hard. Privately I agreed, for I wouldn't
have gone up in the machine myself for ten times the money I hoped to
make. But I had to recover the lost tail of that Lumber Company.
Finally Noomy cabled to his partner and gave him my terms. He replied the same day, "Accept and tell him to go to hell."
We
fixed upon the date for the flying performance over the island and
issued printed leaflets in Chinese and Moro. Then we asked the leading
Chinese and native chiefs to sell the tickets for us—two pesos for the
first-row seats, one peso for the second row and half a peso for
"standing" seats anywhere in the citadel. The funny thing was that it
entered no Chino's or Moro's head that they could see the whole
entertainment aloft without paying a cent.
Fortunately
for us, no one in the islands had ever seen an aeroplane and didn't
exactly know what was going to happen. So everybody paid up and lived
in great expectations for a month. In the meantime the aviator fell
ill, something went wrong with his 'plane—with his engine—anyhow, he
was woefully delayed. The Chinese capitans and the Moro headmen who
had sold the tickets and turned over the money to me advised me that
they were having great bother with the subscribers, and that unless
the stunt came off pretty quick there would be an insurrection and I
would be the first to go to bed headless.
But at long last the machine and the aviator arrived. It
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