“Well, what do you want?” demanded Donald, who was very susceptible to flattery, and who had a weak nature, easily played upon by any one skillful enough to touch the right chord.
“That gang that arrived on the yacht? What about them?” came from Broom.
“They are going to cook your hash if you don’t look out,” said Donald. “That’s Jukes’ brother, and they’re going to find him wherever you’ve put him and then nab you.”
“So that’s the program, eh?” muttered the ‘Bully.’ “Now see here, Donald, I want you on my side and I’m not afraid to pay for it. A smart and clever boy like you could do me a deal of harm if you were sided with the enemy. You’ll be no loser by it. You haven’t told them anything about our little deal with the Centurion yet, have you?”
Donald did some quick thinking. He was sharp enough to see that Broom was afraid of what he might have said, for even in Bomobori there was law and if it were known to Mr. Jukes that Broom was in the vicinity it would be immediately invoked. He balanced his two opportunities against each other. Cupidity, greed for money, had always been his main fault, and now he thought he saw a way to make more out of Broom than he could out of Mr. Jukes. Besides, although he had appeared so humbled before the boys, and ashamed of his past conduct, his hatred still rankled, for the reason that he blamed all his troubles on them and had often brooded over plans of revenge.
“No, I haven’t told them anything about the Centurion,” he said at length, fearing that if he told Broom how much the Jukes party knew the freebooter might withdraw from any deal he was about to make. “I simply gave them a cock-and-bull story about myself when they were astonished to find me here.”
“Ah! So you know them, then? They are friends of yours?” exclaimed Broom.
“Hardly friends,” muttered Donald. “I knew them in America.”
“You’ve no particular affection for them, though?”
“How do you know?”