“What do you say, Weldon?” asked Ned, calmly looking at the water pool.
He did this because there were indications of a girlish breakdown on the part of Fred. His eyelids were twitching, and he was gulping something down that appeared to be choking him.
“Some fellows go and pay a lot of money to be allowed to join an expedition of this sort. I regard these fellows as fools to pay for what should be paid for. The leader always gets the kudos, therefore he ought to pay the costs. Now, boys, I’m fond of kudos, and I mean to have as much of it as I can out of this affair, therefore I reckon it is only fair that I should pay the piper.”
Ned spoke musingly, and flicked with his stick at some grass-stalks.
Then Clarence Raybold took up the cue with the instinctive feelings of a gentleman.
“Those are my sentiments also, of course, when partners go for equal shares in profits as well as adventures. I think, as a kind of guarantee of good faith, the subordinates ought to give a little. Now, I would pledge myself to the extent of twenty pounds, and leave my leader to do all the rest. What do you say, Weldon, old fellow, to contributing twenty pounds each, and letting Ned do the rest?”
Fred crushed back into his eyelids a couple of tears, and then, gulping down a big sob, like a huge pill, with the indifference of a Stoic, he said—
“I’d give fifty pounds willingly to go with you and Ned; but if you decide on twenty as the sum, all right, only I have an amendment to propose.”
“What is that?” asked both Ned and Clar, suspiciously.
“If we should discover any diamond or gold-mines, or other treasures, that the expenses be then fairly divided, and deducted from our shares of profits.”