“I leave this place at sunrise to-morrow,” said Guy Oscard to them all. “I never want to see it again. I will not touch one penny of the money that has been made. I speak for Mr. Meredith and myself—”
“Likewise me—damn it!” put in Joseph.
“I speak as Mr. Meredith himself would have spoken. There is the Simiacine—you can have it. I won't touch it. And now who is going with me—who leaves with me to-morrow morning?”
He moved away from Durnovo.
“And who stays with me?” cried the half-breed, “to share and share alike in the Simiacine?”
Joseph followed Oscard, and with him a certain number of the blacks, but some stayed. Some went over to Durnovo and stood beside him. The slaves spoke among themselves, and then they all went over to Durnovo.
So that which the placid moon shone down upon was the break-up of the great Simiacine scheme. Victor Durnovo had not come off so badly. He had the larger half of the men by his side. He had all the finest crop the trees had yielded—but he had yet to reckon with high Heaven.
CHAPTER XXXIV. AMONG THORNS
We shut our hearts up nowadays,
Like some old music-box that plays
Unfashionable airs.