"Sure," laughed Steve, as pleased as a child, his eyes beaming, and his
face flushed. "I'll tell you how it is, fellows. Notice this queer mark
like a five-pointed star on the shell? I remember stopping to look at it
after washing the mud off the outside. Gee! little did I suspect what I was
holding in my hand."

"G-g-guess not," wabbled Toby. "If you d-d-did I just reckon you'd
g-g-gone ashore and b-b-b-b--"

Of course, when Toby floundered in the depths one of his chums as usual
pounded him on the back vigorously; but that would not have wrought a cure
only that the unfortunate stutterer managed to give his whistle, and then
cry triumphantly:

"Busted it open--there!"

"You just bet I would," admitted Steve.

"Say, we forgot to notice something," declared Bandy-legs.

"As what?" asked Owen.

"Whether the shells of those other oysters that held prizes were also
marked with a star," Bandy-legs went on; at which the balance of the crowd
laughed uproariously.

"What d'ye think of that?" cried Steve. "He expects that when a mussel
starts in to grow a nice healthy pearl he scratches a star on his shell to
let the hard-working hunter know when he's struck a bonanza!"