“Give the girl the price of the oil stock,” he said. “Half the money. That’s all that’s really coming to her, anyway. We’ll use the rest for the trip. Oh, give her a share, if you want to. Let her have a third of what we find. I won’t do it for less. If you won’t meet me on that you’ll never see any of those papers of Morrison’s again. I’ll raise the money somehow myself.
“Look here, do you know Louie’s ashore? Yes, he is. He’s in Mobile now. I saw him myself. He came ashore in the motor launch—the only man in it. I told him the emerald game was up. But if you go back on me I’ll call him in. Now I don’t want to do any crooked work. I’ll share with you fifty-fifty, or thirds all around with the girl, but if not, then I swear I’ll have the whole thing, crooked or straight!”
Lang shook his head. “I can’t bargain. The police will make you give up those photos, you know, if it comes to that. Maybe Miss Morrison——”
The bell of his room telephone interrupted him. He went to its stand and took the receiver. The clerk at the Iberville was calling. Miss Morrison had just come in, and left word that she would be glad to see Doctor Lang.
He hung up, delighted, impatient.
“I can’t make any sort of deal with you,” he said to Carroll. “I’ll put it before Miss Morrison if you like. You’d better think it over and let me hear to-morrow. Now I’ve got to go out.”
They went downstairs together and parted at the hotel entrance. Lang felt Carroll’s eyes following him as he went up the street.
CHAPTER IX
UNEXPLAINED DISAPPEARANCES
Lang was astonished to find that Eva had already gone to the Mobile police headquarters and induced the authorities to telegraph to all the Gulf ports and coastguard stations for news of her father. His respect for her practicality increased immensely. She had had no replies as yet, but she looked hopeful, cheerful, and glad to see him when she came down to the little sitting room on the second floor, where they had often met in the past fortnight.
“That’s the right spirit,” he encouraged her. “Don’t be disappointed if we don’t get any news at once. Your father had a life belt on and would float for hours. And the Gulf is a tropical sea, you know—not cold like the Atlantic.”