Above all he was troubled by what Scottie had said. He would have felt
easy at heart if the Scotchman had met him with an argument or with a
frown or honest opposition or with a hearty handshake, to say that all
was well between them. But this cunning lie--this cunning protestation
that he had been with the new leader from the first, put Andrew on his
guard. For he knew perfectly well that Scottie had not been on his side
during the crisis with La Roche. Macdougal sat before the door, his
metal flask of whisky beside him. It was a fault of Allister, this
permitting of whisky at all times and in all places, after a job was
finished. And while it made the other men savage beasts, it turned
Scottie Macdougal into a wily, smiling snake. He had bit the heel of
more than one man in his drinking bouts.
Presently La Roche and Clune came in. They had been talking together
again. Andrew could tell by the manner in which they separated, as soon
as they entered the room, and by their voices, which they made loud and
cheerful; and, also, by the fact that they avoided looking at each
other. They were striving patently to prove that there was nothing
between them; and if Andrew had been on guard, now he became
tinglingly so.
They arranged their bunks; Larry la Roche took from his vest a pipe with
a small bowl and a long stem and sat down cross-legged to smoke. Andrew
suggested that Larry produce the contents of his saddlebag and share the
spoils of war.
He brought it out willingly enough and spilled it out on the improvised
table, a glittering mass of gold trinkets, watches, jewels. He picked
out of the mass a chain of diamonds and spread it out on his snaky
fingers so that the light could play on it. Andrew knew nothing about
gems, but he knew that the chain must be worth a great deal of money.
"This," said Larry, "is my share. You gents can have the rest and split
it up."
"A nice set of sparklers," nodded Clune, "but there's plenty left to
satisfy me."
"What you think," declared Scottie, "ain't of any importance, Joe. It's
what the chief thinks that counts. Is it square, Lanning?"
Andrew flushed at the appeal and the ugly looks which La Roche and Clune
cast toward him. He could have stifled Scottie for that appeal, and yet
Scottie was smiling in the greatest apparent good nature and belief in
their leader. His face was flushed, but his lips were bloodless. Alcohol
always affected him in that manner.
"I don't know the value of the stones," said Andrew.
"Don't you?" murmured Scottie. "I forgot. Thought maybe you would. That
was something that Allister did know." The new leader saw a flash of
glances toward Scottie, but the latter continued to eye the captain with
a steady and innocent look.
"Scottie," decided Andrew instantly, "is my chief enemy."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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