"I'm sure not great at talking," Moran agreed. "Now, if he tried to have us sandbagged, and you told me to get after him-"

"It hasn't come to that yet," Bethune laughed. "The fellow's more refined in his methods, but they're quite as dangerous." He looked at the note. "However, it's nearly time, and we may as well make a start."

Clay looked up in surprise from his seat at a small table when the three walked in, and he felt half amused at Moran's steady, defiant stare.

This, he thought, was a strange companion for Bethune, whom he at once recognized as the business leader of the party. Jimmy he dismissed, after a searching glance, as less dangerous. He was the practical seaman, no doubt, but it was his partner's intelligence that directed their affairs.

"Sit down," Clay said, taking out his cigar-case. "I wrote to Mr.

Farquhar, but I'm glad to see you all. Will you have anything to drink?"

"No, thanks," Jimmy answered quickly; and added, "I'm afraid it's rather an intrusion, but as we go together, I thought I might bring my friends."

Clay understood his refusal as a declaration of hostility, but he smiled.

"As you prefer," he said, lighting a cigar and quietly studying his callers.

The room was large and handsome, with an inlaid floor, ma.s.sive pillars, and pictures of snow-clad mountains on the walls. It was then almost unoccupied, and that added to the effect of its size and loftiness, but two very smart and somewhat supercilious attendants hovered in the background. Farquhar and his friends were shabbily dressed, and Clay had hoped that they might feel themselves out of place and perhaps embarra.s.sed by his silence, but there was no sign of this. Indeed, they seemed very much at ease. Bethune's expression was slightly bored, while Moran glanced about with nave curiosity. For all that, they looked worn, and there was something about them which suggested tension. They had felt the pressure he had skilfully brought to bear, but whether it had made them compliant or not remained to be seen.

"Well," Clay began, "we must have a talk. You have undertaken some salvage operations at a wreck in the North?"

"Yes," Jimmy answered concisely.

"You don't seem to have been very successful."

"I dare say our appearance proves it," Bethune smiled. "As a matter of fact, we haven't cleared our expenses yet."

Clay did not know what to think of this frankness; he imagined that if the man had any wish to extort the best terms he could, he would have been less candid. He saw that he must be cautious, for he had done a risky thing in asking Farquhar to meet him. He would rather have left the fellow alone and tried to destroy the wreck before they reached it; but he knew that he might not live to do so. He had had his warnings and he could not leave the matter open.

"It's obvious that, as the salvage people abandoned the vessel, something has happened to give you a chance," he said. "However, as you can't have money enough to buy a proper outfit, you're not likely to make much use of the opportunity. You want steam and the best diving gear, and I guess you found them too expensive."

"We might do better if we had them," Bethune admitted.

"Very well; are you willing to take a partner?"

There was uncompromising refusal in Jimmy's face, but he did not speak, and Clay surmised that Bethune had given him a warning kick under the table. Bethune, in fact, had done so, and was thinking hard. To refuse would imply that they expected to succeed and that the salvage could be easily accomplished with such poor apparatus as they could obtain; but this was not advisable, because it would encourage Clay to antic.i.p.ate them.

"We might consider a sleeping partner who'd be content with his profit on the money he supplied," he said.

"That means you intend to keep the practical operations in your own hands?"

"Yes," Bethune answered; "you can take it that it does."

"Then the arrangement wouldn't suit me. I know more about the vessel than you do, and I've been accustomed to directing things. But I'll bid you five thousand dollars for your interest in the wreck."

"Strictly speaking, we have no interest that we could sell."

"That's true; but I'll buy your knowledge of how she lies and the best way of getting at her cargo. Of course, after you have taken the money you'll leave her alone."

"It's tempting," Bethune said thoughtfully. "But perhaps we had better be frank. I understand that you were one of the owners, and, as the underwriters paid you, I don't see what you would gain."

"All the gold on board her wasn't insured."

Bethune looked hard at him and Clay smiled. "It's true. Then, there's no reason why I shouldn't have a try at the salvage. I'm open to make a shot at anything that promises a moderate profit."

"I suppose there is no reason," Bethune agreed slowly. "Would you go up to ten thousand dollars?"

"No, sir!" Clay said firmly. "I stick to my bid."

"Then I'm sorry we can't make a deal." Bethune turned to the others. "I suppose that's your opinion?"

"Of course," said Jimmy; and Moran nodded.

Clay was silent for a few moments. He would gladly have given ten thousand dollars to settle the matter, but he doubted whether Bethune would take it; and to bid high would rouse suspicion. It looked as if he had accomplished nothing, but he had found out that his opponents were more capable than he had imagined, and he decided that it would be safer to put no further pressure on them. He did not wish them to learn that he was the cause of the trouble they had had in finding employment, as it would indicate that he had some strong reason for preventing their return to the wreck.

"Well," he said, "it's a pity we can't come to terms, but I can make no fresh suggestion. You're up against a pretty big undertaking."

"So it seems," Bethune answered pleasantly. "We'll have to do the best we can. And now, as we mustn't take up your time, I'll bid you good-night."

Clay let them go, and as they went down the street Jimmy turned to Bethune.

"What do you think of the interview?" he asked.

"A drawn game. Neither side has scored; but I've learned two things. The first is that he has no suspicion that we have found the bogus case."

"How do you infer that?"

"From his view of our character. You must recollect that we're hard-up adventurers whom he wouldn't expect to be scrupulous. He'd conclude that if we had found anything suspicious we'd have let him know and tried to sell our secret. He was waiting for some hint, and I was careful to give him none."

"What's the next thing?"

"That he'll try to clean out the wreck before we get there. It was the only reason he let us go. I dare say you noticed how careful he was not to show any anxiety to buy us off. It's curious, but I really think he spoke the truth when he said all the gold was not insured."

"If it had been a straight deal, with nothing behind it, I think I'd have taken the five thousand dollars," Jimmy said. "He won't have much trouble in getting ahead of us when the ice breaks up. It will cost something to fit out the sloop, and our pockets are empty."

"Oh, there's time yet," Bethune replied with a cheerful laugh.

"Something may turn up."

Fortune favored them during the next week, for Bethune secured a post as hotel clerk, and Moran went inland to a.s.sist in repairing a railroad track which a snowslide had wrecked. Soon afterward Jimmy shipped as deck-hand on a Sound steamboat and was lucky in attracting the attention of one of the directors who was on board by the cool promptness with which he prevented an accident when a pa.s.senger gangway broke. The director had a talk with him, and, learning that he was a steamship officer, placed him in charge of a gasolene launch which picked up pa.s.sengers at unimportant landings and took them off to the boats. The work was easy, and paid fairly well; and Jimmy had held his post for a month with some satisfaction when he went off to meet a north-bound steamer at dusk one evening.

He had no pa.s.sengers and it was blowing fresh with showers of sleet.

Savage gusts whipped the leaden water into frothing white, and as he drew out from the sh.o.r.e the ripples which chased the launch grew larger.

When he pa.s.sed a headland they changed into short, breaking seas, and the craft plunged wildly as she crossed a strong run of tide. Here and there an island loomed up dimly, but the sh.o.r.e had faded into the haze.

When Jimmy first joined her, the boat had carried another hand, but the man had gone and had not been replaced because trade was slack in winter. Jimmy thought that he might have trouble in getting his pa.s.sengers on board; but they were not likely to be numerous, and the steamer would run into shelter behind an island.

He was late, for his engine was not working well, but there was no sign of the steamer when he stopped, and the boat lay rolling with the spray blowing across her rail. It rattled on Jimmy's slickers and stung his face, but the cold was mild by comparison with what he had endured in the North, and he sat in the shelter of the coaming, glancing up the Sound every now and then. Presently a sleet-storm broke upon him, and when it blew away a blinking white light and a colored one broke out of the driving cloud. Jimmy lighted a blue flare and, starting the engine, headed for the end of the island. When he stopped, the steamer was close ahead, a lofty, gray ma.s.s, banded with rows of lights. She rolled as she crossed the tide-stream, and he could see the foam about her big side-wheels and the smoke that swept from her inclined stacks. It did not look as if she were stopping, and he was about to get out of her way when a deep blast of her whistle broke through the turmoil of the sea.

In another minute he was abreast of the gangway and caught the rope thrown down, though he kept the launch off at a few yards' distance.

The ladder was lowered, and hung banging awkwardly against the vessel's side; and while Jimmy waited with his hand on the tiller a deck-hand ran down to the lowest step and flung a valise into the boat, and then turned to a.s.sist a woman who followed him. Jimmy could not see her well, but he noticed that she was active and not timid, which was rea.s.suring, and he cautiously sheered the launch closer in.

"Give me your hand and jump!" he cried.