“Do you know what I’m going to do?” remarked Hawke. “You’ll laugh, but I’m going to buy a half-interest in a big bee ranch in California. It’s an ideal life. The bees do all the work, and all you have to do is to lie in the shade and collect profits once in awhile. You can run a fruit farm on the side, and there’s big money in it.”
“That’s what I should like above all things,” said Margaret, who came aft at that moment.
“What will you do, Elliott?” queried Henninger, half-ironically.
“I don’t know,” said Elliott, vaguely, glancing up at the girl, who leaned against the rail, balancing herself easily as the dhow rolled. “The first thing is to make sure of getting away with the stuff. Henninger thinks we had better put in at Durban, Miss Laurie, and divide the gold and scatter it as much as possible.”
“What for? Will any one rob us?” asked Margaret, quickly.
“Yes—the government police,” said Bennett.
“But I thought—Haven’t we a right to the gold? Isn’t it ours?”
“Heaven knows it ought to be, after all we’ve gone through,” remarked Elliott.
“But isn’t it?” Margaret insisted.
“You’re not sophisticated enough, Miss Laurie,” said Henninger. “There’s always a claimant for as much money as this. The gold seems to have been stolen from the Transvaal government, and it’s certain that the English government will claim it—if they hear that it’s been recovered. But we don’t intend that they shall hear.”