“It strikes me you and the writin’ chap is gettin’ thick—­too blasted thick to suit me, Thirkle, if ye want to know.  Mind ye don’t come none of yer smart tricks now, or I won’t wait for ye to go explainin’ of what ye mean.  Savvy that?”

“Tut, tut, man!” said Thirkle.  “How can you have any doubts about what will happen to Mr. Trenholm?  I suppose you think I want to take him along with us so he can write this all up for the newspapers?  I’m surprised at you, Bucky.  Don’t you know my ways yet?”

“That’s all right,” growled Buckrow, who was in an ill humour.  “We was to work even, and ye ain’t been doin’ yer part, Thirkle.  A bargain’s a bargain I’d have ye know, and I’m to see ye keep to yer part of it.”

“Pipe down—­pipe down, Bucky,” said Petrak, who seemed in glee after the brandy he had had.  “It’s the drink talkin’, Bucky.  We’re all good chaps, and Thirkle’s A No. 1, and we got the gold to stow.”

“Don’t come no bos’n manners to me,” retorted Buckrow savagely.  “I ain’t goin’ to stand for none such from ye, Red.  Yer sidin’ with Thirkle, and I know that, and I’m as good a man as Thirkle; and I’m boss here, even or no even.  I’m boss!  Understand that?  Thirkle and ye can have yer votes if ye want; but I’m boss, and I’ll drill the two of ye.”

“Ye ain’t goin’ to fight, be ye Bucky?”

“I’ll put all hands under ground—­that’s what, if ye don’t turn to; and there’s too much gammin’ and gabbin’ here to suit me, I’d have ye know.”

Petrak looked at Thirkle as if in doubt about Buckrow’s sanity, and Thirkle gave him a look that seemed to me to be a message, and he made a furtive signal which I was not able to interpret.

“Steady as she goes, mates; steady as she goes,” purred Thirkle.  “This is no time to quarrel.  We’ll have a gunboat down on us if we don’t get away soon, and there’s a lot to do yet before we leave.  Let Bucky alone, Red.”

“Then ye and the writin’ chap lay on and move lively,” snarled Buckrow, and Thirkle had me take hold of a sack behind him, and, with him leading the way, we carried it into the miniature canon.

The sacks were heavy, but were bound with ropes which served as handles, and were not hard to move until we got into the narrow cleft, where I found that my shoulders bumped along the walls as I swayed from side to side, or missed my footing on the damp, slippery ground.

Buckrow and Petrak followed us in with another sack, and when Thirkle had gone as far as he could he pulled our sack forward under his feet and stowed it in the angle where the walls joined.  Then I had to pass the second sack on to him, taking it from Petrak, who was next to me, and then we turned in our tracks and went out again.

The brush on the top of the cliff overlapped the crevice, so that it was quite dark a few feet from the entrance.  The walls were slippery with a thick, funguslike moss, from which cool water dripped.