‘What did you kill him for?’
More brandy; and then, as his eyes brightened, he laughed, actually laughed up at us, saying, in a strong voice,—
‘Why, you fool, for the big lump, o’ coorse! A ’underd an’ eighty ounces! Too big to share, I reckon. I’d a-smashed a dozen men for it in them days, let alone a poor softy like Jim.’
‘There must be thirty or forty ounces down there,’ I remarked. ‘Why didn’t you take that too?’
‘Never you mind,’ he said. ‘I come back for it now. And if it hadn’t been for that theer infernal dorg I’d ha’ had it.’
‘And how about us?’ asked Treloar, as, obeying the look in his eyes, he gave him another drink.
[Illustration: Upon the rope coils lay “Brummy,” quite still. ([Page 87])]
The dying man smiled significantly, but said nothing. There was a long pause, during which Brummy shut his [89] ]eyes, and breathed stertorously, whilst Kálee, drawing herself noiselessly along on her belly, came closer, and looked into his face, but with no anger in her gaze now.