“That’s my business,” said the other. “What do you want?”
“I told you I sailed in five days,” said the seaman. “Well, I got another ship this evening instead, and I sail at 6 a.m. Things are getting just a bit too thick for me, an’ I thought out o’ pure good nature I’d step round and put you on your guard.”
“Why didn’t you do so at first?” said the Jew, eyeing him suspiciously.
“Well, I didn’t want to spoil a bargain,” said the seaman carelessly. “Maybe, you wouldn’t have bought the stone if I had told you. Mind that thing don’t go off; I don’t want to rob you. Point it the other way.”
“There was four of us in that deal,” he continued, after the other had complied with his request. “Me an’ Jack Ball and Nosey Wheeler and a Burmese chap; the last I see o’ Jack Ball he was quiet and peaceful, with a knife sticking in his chest. If I hadn’t been a very careful man I’d have had one sticking in mine. If you ain’t a very careful man, and do what I tell you, you’ll have one sticking in yours.”
“Speak a little more plainly,” said the Jew. “Come into the parlor, I don’t want the police to see a light in the shop.”
“We stole it,” said the seaman, as he followed the other into the little back parlor, “the four of us, from—”
“I don’t want to know anything about that,” interrupted the other hastily.
The sailor grinned approvingly, and continued: “Then me an’ Jack being stronger than them, we took it from them two, but they got level with poor Jack. I shipped before the mast on a barque, and they came over by steamer an’ waited for me.”
“Well, you’re not afraid of them?” said the Jew interrogatively. “Besides, a word to the police—”