“Nevertheless, it is a king’s fortune,” affirmed the Marquis. He was quite pale, and almost trembling. “And this sorcerer is using it to make charms!”
“If we can get it—” I began.
“Where shall there be any difficulty? It is only to buy.”
“Is it? You don’t know these sorcerers. Probably he thinks his whole power depends on it.”
“Flint, my Flint, it would be hard to say what it depends on. He has power, we know it. He has power of life and death. What a man!”
“Oh, he’s only a greasy nigger after all, whatever conjuring tricks he can play,” I said irritably. “They claim a lot, these sorcerers. They say they can kill any one by wishing, and bring him to life again by making spells. If you listened to what they say——”
“But the lizard—he was dead,” said the Marquis, in a solemn voice.
“Hang the lizard! It’s the diamond we are after now. First to get it, and then to find out where it came from—if that’s possible.”
“Flint, my friend, I am not rich—you know that,” said the Marquis, with something like tears in his fat voice. “I have strained myself—have, what is it you say? bust—have bust my resources, to make this voyage in New Guinea. But if we can get that diamond—see, the glories of my house are restored; I am once more the proper kind of a marquis, you bet! And you—you are rich. You are a gentle and a spiritual, Flint—I shall be glad to think of you rich.”
All this time we had been making away from the marea, but the cry under the house never ceased to follow us. I could not stand it at last. There are many things in a New Guinea inland town which you had better not inquire into unless you are prepared to put up a fight. But somehow I felt I wanted to look into this, and I told the Marquis so.