"What have you to offer? My friends and I can keep the treasure. Why should I ditch them for you? What's the quid pro quo?"
"You and Evie and I will go shares, third and third alike. The better man of us two will marry her. If it should be you, that will give you two-thirds."
"You're very generous."
"Oh, I intend to marry her if I can. But I'll play fair. If she has the bad taste to prefer you——"
"In the event that I should happen to be alive still," I amended. "You know how dangerous yellow fever is in the Isthmus, captain. I am afraid that it would get me before we reached the canal zone again."
He chuckled.
"If you have a fault, my friend, it lies on the side of suspicion. When I give my word I keep it—that is, when I give it to a gentleman."
"I don't want to lead you into the temptation of revising your opinion of me and deciding that I am no gentleman."
"Come, Mr. Sedgwick. We're not two fishwives to split hairs over a trifle. I offer a compromise. Do you accept it?"
"You offer me nothing I haven't got already. A share of the treasure—that will be mine, anyhow, as soon as we have it assayed and weighed."