"Be a little more definite, please."
"Chuck your friends overboard and go into partnership with me."
"Are you speaking literally, or in metaphor, captain?"
He shrugged.
"That's a mere detail. If you have compunctions we'll maroon them."
"Just what you promised the crew last time," I scored.
"Wharf rats!" He waved the point aside magnificently. "I'm proposing now a gentleman's agreement."
"Which you'll keep as long as it suits you."
"I thought you knew me better."
"What have you to offer? My friends and I can keep the treasure. Why should I ditch them for you? What's the quid pro quo?"
"You and Evie and I will go shares, third and third alike. The better man of us two will marry her. If it should be you, that will give you two-thirds."
"You're very generous."
"Oh, I intend to marry her if I can. But I'll play fair. If she has the bad taste to prefer you——"
"In the event that I should happen to be alive still," I amended. "You know how dangerous yellow fever is in the Isthmus, captain. I am afraid that it would get me before we reached the canal zone again."
He chuckled.
"If you have a fault, my friend, it lies on the side of suspicion. When I give my word I keep it—that is, when I give it to a gentleman."
"I don't want to lead you into the temptation of revising your opinion of me and deciding that I am no gentleman."
"Come, Mr. Sedgwick. We're not two fishwives to split hairs over a trifle. I offer a compromise. Do you accept it?"
"You offer me nothing I haven't got already. A share of the treasure—that will be mine, anyhow, as soon as we have it assayed and weighed."
"You forget Evie."
"Who is safe at Panama, beyond your reach, you scoundrel. Why should I fear you as a rival since your life is forfeit as soon as you show your head?"
He could not have spoken more insolently himself. It was hot shot, but I poured it in for a purpose. The mask fell from his face. One could see the devil in his eyes now.
"You reject my offer," he said, breathing hard to repress his rising passion.
A second man had come out of the jungle and was moving toward us. It was time to be going. I moved back a step or two, my fingers caressing the butt of a revolver.
"Yes, since I don't want to commit suicide, captain."
He suddenly lost his temper completely and hopelessly. He glared at me in a speechless rage, half of a mind to fight our quarrel out on the spot. But the advantage lay with me. All I had to do to blaze away was to tilt the point of my revolver at him without drawing it from the scabbard. Then words came, poured out of him in a torrent. He cursed me in Russian, in French, in English.
I backed from him, step by step, till I was out of range. Then, swiftly as his rage had swept upon him it died away, leaving him white and shaken. He leaned heavily upon the man who had now joined him.
Unless I was much mistaken the man was George Fleming.
Chapter XXIII.
Aboard the Schooner
Dignity be hanged! I scudded down the beach as fast as my legs would carry me. Alderson had been left alone at the cache and my heart was in my throat.
When I saw him strolling about with his hands in his pockets I could have shouted for joy if I had had the breath. For I had half expected to find him dead.
He came forward quickly to meet me.
"A tug rounded the bend five minutes since and stopped at the yacht, Mr. Sedgwick," he told me.
I looked out into the bay. A boat was just leaving the Argos for the shore. At the point where the sailors presently beached it I was waiting. Blythe jumped out and splashed through the shallow water to meet me. From the look on his face it was clear that something had gone wrong.
Taking me by the arm he led me a few yards along the sand.
"Bad news, Jack."
"What is it?"
"Miss Wallace was waylaid and kidnaped four days ago while she and her aunt were driving."
"How do you know?"
"Miss Berry sent Philips down in a tug to let us know. But that is not the worst. The day before the kidnaping Bothwell escaped from prison. It is thought that his guards were bribed."
I saw in a flash the cause of the Slav's gloating triumph. Evelyn was his prisoner. He had her safely hidden somewhere in the mangrove swamps.
We might dig the treasure up, but we would have to give him every cent of it in ransom for her. That was his plan, and in it lay the elements of success. For Blythe and Yeager, no more than I, would weigh gold against her safety.
We knew Bothwell. His civilization was a veneer. Disappointed of the wealth he had come seeking, the man would revenge himself on the girl who had stood in his way. I dared not think of the shame and degradation he would make her suffer.
I told Blythe of my meeting with Bothwell.
My face must have been ashen, for Sam put a hand on my shoulder.
"Keep a stiff upper lip, old chap. Bothwell won't hurt her until he is pushed to it. Before that time comes we'll take care of her."
"That's easy saying. But how? That prince of devils has her back there in the swamps guarded by his ruffians. We don't know where they are. This very minute she may be—— My God, think of the danger she runs!"
Blythe shook his head.
"She's safe till Bothwell gives the word. Not one of his fellows would dare lift a hand against her. The captain would shoot him like a dog."
"And Bothwell himself?"
"She's safe yet, Jack. He's playing for the treasure and to marry her, too. The man is not such a fool as to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. The hour of danger for her would be the one when he found out that he had lost the treasure."
"Let's give it to him. I'll go tell him he may have it all."
"Easy, lad, easy. We must play our cards and not throw the hand down. We must get hold of the treasure before we can make terms."
"And let Evelyn stay in his hands without making an effort to free her?" I demanded.
"Did I say that, Jack?"
"What are you going to do, then?"
"As soon as night falls we'll send a boat up the river to find out where his camp is. We'll make a reconnaissance."
"I'll go."
"Don't you think somebody less impetuous would be better, Jack? We don't want to spoil things by any premature attack."
"I'm going, Sam. That's all there is to say about that."
"All right. If you are, you are. But you'd better let me."
"You may come along if you like."
"No, if you go I'll have to stay by the ship against a possible attack. Tom will have charge of the party that watches the treasure. The deuce of it is that our force will be divided into three. I hope Bothwell does not take the