She saw Black John lying on the ground by a rock, not far off. That he was not asleep she observed by his occasional movement; so she slipped out to where he was, intending to ask him some questions. Before she reached him she stopped, stupefied with astonishment.
Black John had taken the buckskin bag from his inner pocket, poured the emeralds on the ground, and was looking them over, hefting and scanning them, and estimating their worth.
The cry of the girl aroused him.
She had crept forward until she was right at his elbow, and now she jumped at the gems, and tried to heap them together in her hands. Her voice and manner were hysterical.
“You scoundrel!” she gasped. “You lied to me! You said——”
He clutched her and pushed her back with an oath, and many of the emeralds fell to the ground.
Her act, and the fact that his duplicity had been discovered, enraged him. He threw her to the ground, and, drawing his revolver, seemed on the point of shooting her; but he thought better of it, and began to pick up the fallen emeralds. She still clutched and held a few of them.
“Gimme them!” he commanded angrily.
“You lied to me!” she said.
“What if I did? Gimme them emeralds!”