BARTLETT--[_Grimly._] Ye’ll choke in earnest if ye don’t answer me. What d’ye see? Is it gold? Answer me--is it gold? ABEL--[_Stutteringly._] Yes--sure--gold--I see it! BARTLETT--[_Thrusts him away. The boy staggers and falls to the sand._ BARTLETT _turns to_ BUTLER _triumphantly_.] Ye see, ye liar? Gold! Gold! Even a child can tell it at a look. [_With a sombre menace in his tone._] But ye--don’t believe--do ye? BUTLER--[_Frightenedly._] Maybe I was wrong, sir. I--didn’t--look very careful. BARTLETT--Come here! [_He stands up, his back against the tree._] Come here! BUTLER--Yes, sir. [_But he looks about him shiftily, as if to run away._] BARTLETT--Jimmy! [_The_ KANAKA _leaps to his feet_.] Knife him, Jimmy, if he tries to run. JIMMY--[_His hand goes to his knife, his dark eyes lighting up with savagery--in his soft voice._] Aye, Captain! BARTLETT--[_To the trembling cook._] Come here! BUTLER--[_Goes to him with the courage of desperation._] Yes, sir. BARTLETT--[_Pointing to the contents of the chest._] Is it gold--or not? BUTLER--If I can feel of one---- BARTLETT--Pick one up. BUTLER--[_Picks up a heavy anklet encrusted with colored glass, looks at it for a minute--then feigning great assurance._] I was wrong, Captain. It’s gold all right enough--worth all kinds of money, I bet. BARTLETT--[_With mad triumph._] Ha! Ye’ve come to your senses, have ye? Too late, ye swab! No share for ye! And here’s to teach ye for lyin’ to me before! [_His fist jerks out from his side, and_ BUTLER _is knocked sprawling on the sand, where he lies groaning for a moment, the anklet still clutched in his hand. The boy gives a gasp of fright and scampers off, left._] BARTLETT--That’ll learn ye! [_He sits down beside the chest. The others crouch close. Bartlett shoves in both of his hands--in a tone of mad gloating._] Gold! Better’n whaling, ain’t she, boys? Better’n ambergris, even if I ever had luck to find any! [BUTLER _staggers to his feet. He examines the anklet with contemptuous scorn and even bites it to make sure. Then he edges stealthily toward the left. A sudden transformation comes over his face and he glowers at the Captain with hatred, his features distorted with fury._] JIMMY KANAKA--[_Pointing to_ BUTLER.] He got him, Captain! BARTLETT--[_Glancing at the cook with contemptuous scorn._] Sneakin’ away with that piece o’ the gold, be ye? Ye thievin’ swine! Ye know right enough it’s gold now, don’t ye? Well, ye kin keep it--for your share for speakin’ the truth that once. HORNE--[_His cupidity protesting._] Don’t give it to him, sir! It’s so much the less for us that worked for it when he did nothin’!