Quotation from: The Valley of the Moon

Written by: Jack London

"I wouldn't have if I hadn't been on. I'd been practicing it
secretly for a week. And I got twenty dollars out of him on the
bet."

The tide was now low enough for mussel gathering and Saxon
accompanied the men out the north wall. Hall had several sacks to
fill. A rig was coming for him in the afternoon, he explained, to
cart the mussels back to Carmel. When the sacks were full they
ventured further among the rock crevices and were rewarded with
three abalones, among the shells of which Saxon found one coveted
blister-pearl. Hall initiated them into the mysteries of pounding
and preparing the abalone meat for cooking.