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240 "And what did you do with your share?"

"I'll—er—I'll tell you when we get out of this hole."

"You'll tell me right now, Merwell!" And again Dave caught the culprit by the arm.

"I—I put my share of the jewels in my money-belt," he faltered.

"Have you it on now?"

"Yes. But Nick has the best of the jewels—I got only the little ones," went on Link Merwell, half-angrily. It was easy to surmise that he and Jasniff had not gotten along well together.

"How is it Jasniff got the best of them?"

"He had the jewel-case when we were about to leave the bark during the storm. Everybody was excited, and he said we couldn't carry the case—that it wouldn't be safe, for we might drop it and all of the jewels would be lost. He said we had better divide them and put them in our belts. We had bought belts for that purpose in Jacksonville. So we took the jewels out of the case and threw the box away. I thought I had my share, but after we got to this island, and I had a chance to look, I saw he had the lion's share, about three-quarters, in fact, and all the big ones."

"And he has them now?"

"Yes,—that is, he did have them just before we saw you."

"Did you sell or pawn any of the jewels?"