“Why, what’s he been doin’ to you?”
“Now, I’ll tell you,” said Cleary. “I’m an honest man. I don’t say in trade I’m not above shavin’ the barber, but between man an’ man I’m honest, and I’m goin’ to tell you straight out Cark and me has been layin’ for you ever since your dad was fool enough to give Cark the tip about that treasure business. I wasn’t keen on it, same as he was. I allowed there might be somethin’ in it—but that don’t matter. What gets my monkey is Cark he gets fearful thick with Sellers, then he cools off on the business of the treasure gettin’, and a matter of two weeks ago he rigs up a job for me to see after at Pensacola that’d have taken me two months and more. I says to myself, ‘There’s somethin’ in this.’ Says nothin’ to Cark. Off I goes, taking the old Natchez. Hadn’t reached the latitood of Key West when back I puts, and finds Cark gone with the Juan and Sellers.
“Then I knew he’s started to hunt for you again, leavin’ me in the lonely cold. He’s been huntin’ you ever since last fall, that’s straight; but he’d never let me down before. He’d always told me the results. I tell you he’s huntin’ for you now, and the surprisin’ thing is he hasn’t found you, knowing as he does this is one of your grounds.”
“How do you know he hasn’t found me?”
“What you mean?”
“Why, he was here this morning and off not four hours ago.”
“Christopher!”
“Him and Sellers.”
“You was comin’ up from West, you ought to have sighted him.”