Weeks nodded calmly.
“I believe you’re lying,” the sailor declared.
“Well you can think so if you want to,” said the ex-clerk, rising, “and I’ll go now and find somebody to go in with me on this scheme, and I’ll run my chances of getting to the brig first. You can have the old hulk and welcome after I’ve been aboard her five minutes, Leroyd.
“But, if you’ll let me in on the ground floor of this,” he continued, “and give me one third of all there is in it, why all right. If you don’t, probably you’ll get nothing, while me and the other fellow’ll get it all,” and Mr. Weeks smiled benignantly upon his audience.
CHAPTER XXIV
HOW A NEFARIOUS COMPACT WAS FORMED
“But yeou can’t do that!” cried old Arad Tarr, the first to break the silence after Mr. Weeks had delivered what might be termed his “ultimatum.” “There hasn’t anybody got airy right ter go arter them di’monds, but them I send.”
“That is where you make an error, Mr. Tarr,” responded Weeks cheerfully. “This is what is called ‘treasure trove;’ the fellow who gets there first has the best right to it.”
“It ben’t so, is it?” whined the old man, appealing to Leroyd.
“Yes, I s’pose it is,” admitted the sailor, with a growl. “He’s got us foul, old man.”
“Now, don’t talk that way, Leroyd,” exclaimed Weeks briskly. “We three must strike hands and share evenly in this thing. You need me, any way, though I can get along without either of you; for you know it wouldn’t take me long to find a man to back me with a couple of hundred dollars against the chance of winning thousands.”