“I’ll take this sack for mine and split fair with ye, Jim; and it’s better than Thirkle would give the two of us, and I ain’t savin’ as how he wouldn’t slit our throats in the bargain to get back again what little he give.  We best give him a wide berth, and he’ll do for Bucky, too; mind what I say.”

“That ’e will,” said Long Jim. “’E’s thick with Bucky now, but mind yer eye when ‘e gits Bucky close hauled goin’ ’ome.  Think Bucky’ll ever find ’is way back to this place?  Thirkle’ll do for ’im—­right ye are, Red—­just as ’e’d done for the two of us, Red.”

“Bucky was a good sort, too.”

“We was all good sorts,” said Jim.  “We was all good sorts and fine men, Reddy, when the bloomink loot was coming and there was windpipes to slit, and ’e had to ’ave ’ands to do the work for ’im.  Ye mind what he told me, Reddy?”

“What was it Thirkle told ye, Jim?  I’d give a bob to know.  Was it about me, Jim?”

“Tells me the same bloody thing ’e told ye,” said Jim, shutting one eye and making a grimace to impress Petrak.

“What’s that, Jim?  I don’t remember of what ye mean.”

“Tells me to do for ye down the trail.”

“The beggar!” said Petrak.

“Gawd strike me blind if ’e didn’t!  ’Take a walk for yerself down the trail with Petrak,’ he says.  ’Mind when ye get a chance and ’ook a knife in his kidneys, and do it neat and clean; and then there’ll be only three of us to cut this pile ’ere three ways—­me, Bucky, and yer own self, Jim.’

“That’s what ’e said, Reddy; strike me blind!  Like you did, I says I’ll do it.  Ye see his gyme?  We’d do for each other in a fight, and so take the job off ’s ’ands.  Buckrow and ’im think it’s done now; but ’e’ll get Bucky at the last, too, or I’m a beggar.

“That’s ’is gyme, Red—­do for all of us and ’ave the gold all to ’imself—­and no sailormen what know what ’e’s been up to out ’ere coming around to tap on ’is window of a night when ’e’s asleep and ask for the price of a drink, or ’e’ll have the police down on ’im and tell Scotland Yard’ e’s the Devil’s Hadmiral.  He wants the pile to ’imself, and never a bit more does ’e care for the likes of us than for the throats we’ve cut for ‘im for the gettin’ of it all.”

“Sure,” said Reddy.  “He wants it all for himself, to be a fine gentleman and a church member and have his tipple and fine eatin’.  We better move on a bit now, Jim, or they’ll be after us.”

They shouldered the pole again and went on, and I followed them for a time, trying to estimate the position of Captain Riggs on the trail from where I was; but in the excitement of following Petrak and Long Jim I had lost my bearings.

Their course through the jungle had been devious and without much clearness as to a general direction, for first one would advise one way, and then the other another; and there were times when they had been compelled by the brush and gullies to go out of their way.