Sophie went on to their own home, and Potch, swerving from her, walked across to the back door of Michael's hut.
CHAPTER XV
Charley was sitting on the couch, leaning towards Michael, his shoulders hunched, his eyes gleaming, when Potch went into the hut.
"You can't bluff me," Potch heard him say. "You may throw dust in the eyes of the men here, but you can't bluff me.... It was you did for me.... It was you put it over on me—took those stones."
"Well, you tell the boys," Potch heard Michael say.
His voice was as unconcerned as though it were not anything of importance they were discussing. Potch found relief in the sound of it, but its unconcern drove Charley to fury.
"You know I took them from Paul," he shouted. "You know—I can see it in your eyes ... and you took them from me. When ... how ... I don't know.... You must 've sneaked into the house when I dozed off for a bit, and put a parcel of your own rotten stuff in their place.... How do I know? Well, I'll tell you...."
He settled back on the sofa. "I hung on to the best stone in the lot—clear brown potch with good flame in it—hopin' it would give me a clue some day to the man who'd done that trick on me. But I couldn't place the stone; I'd never seen it on you, and Jun had never seen it either. I was dead stony when I sold it to Maud ... and I told her why I'd been keeping it, seeing she was in the show at the start off. She sold the stone to Armitage in America, and first thing the old man said when he saw it was: 'Why, that's Michael's mascot!'"
"Remembered when you'd got it, he said," Charley continued, taking Michael's interest with gratified malice. "First stone you'd come on, on Fallen Star, and you wouldn't sell—kept her for luck.... Old Armitage wouldn't have anything to do with the stone then—didn't believe Maud's story.... But John Lincoln got it. He told me...."