"G'wan Earl," nodded the latter, "heave her up."
"That's all. I sez, `Good-bye, Jake. An' if you heed me warning', ill-gotten gains ain't a-going to prosper nobody.' That's what I said to Jake Kloon, the last solemn words I spoke to that there man now in his bloody grave——"
"Hey?" demanded Clinch.
"That's where Jake is," repeated Leverett. "Why, so help me, I wa'nt gone ten yards when, bang! goes a gun, and I see this here Quintana come outen the busy, I do, and walk up to Jake and frisk him and Jake still a-kickin' the moss to slivers. Yessir, that's what I seen."
"G'wan."
"Yessir. … 'N'then Quintana he shoved Jake into a sink-hole. Thaswot I seen with my own two eyes. Yessir. 'N'then Quintana he run off, 'n'I jest set down in the trail, I did; 'n'then Hal come up and acted like I had stole your packet, he did; 'n'then I told him what Quintana done. 'N'Hal, he takes after Quintana, but I don't guess he meets up with him, for he come back and ketched holt o' me, 'n'he druv me in like I was a caaf, he did. 'N'here I be."
The dusk in the forest had deepened so that the men's faces had become mere blotches of grey.
Smith said to Clinch: "That's his story, Mike. But I preferred he should tell it to you himself, so I brought him along. … Did you drive Star Peak?"
"There wa'nt nothin' onto it," said Clinch very softly. Then, of a sudden, his shadowy visage became contorted and he jerked up his rifle and threw a cartridge into the magazine.
"You dirty louse!" he roared at Leverett, "you was into this, too, a-robbin' my little Eve——"