"What are we going to do?" he thundered. "Sit here like turtles on a mud-bank while this Yankee lords it over us and ruins our business? Donder en bliksem, I won't, whatever the rest of you may do. Kapitein, get your wits to work; what is the best way to get rid of this Yankee?"
Van Slyck looked at him in surprise. Then his quick wit instantly guessed the reason for the outburst.
"Well, mynheer," he replied, shrugging his shoulders indifferently, "it seems to me that this is a matter you are more interested in than I. Mynheer Gross does not come to displace me."
"You are ready enough to scheme murders if there is a gulden in it for you, but you have no counsel for a friend, eh?" Muller snarled. "Let me remind you, kapitein, that you are involved just as heavily as I."
Van Slyck laughed in cynical good humor.
"Let it never be said that a Van Slyck is so base as that, mynheer. Supposing we put our heads together. In the first place, let us give Koyala a chance to tell what she knows. Where did you get the news, Koyala?"
"That makes no difference, mynheer kapitein," Koyala rejoined coolly. "I have my own avenues of information."
Van Slyck frowned with annoyance.
"When does he come here?" he inquired.
"We may expect him any time," Koyala stated. "He is to come when the rainy season closes, and that will be in a few days."