Page:Raymond Spears--Diamond Tolls.djvu/115

 except maybe a chair, say. You can see it's a right tight boat, dry's a bone."

"How much?" Murdong asked.

Mrs. Mahna dodged behind, making frantic gestures with two fingers to the girl, who thought a moment before answering.

"It cost me in the water one hundred and thirty-five dollars. You can have it for that; I want to save my books and things"

"That's dirt cheap," Mrs. Mahna declared. "You'd never get that boat from me for less'n two hundred!"

"It's too cheap!" Murdong assented. "I'll pay $150."

"As you wish," Delia said, looking at him curiously. "Is that the way you do business—giving more than is asked?"

"I couldn't take advantage of any one," he explained. "I wish I could—I'd get farther, probably. But my conscience"

"Perhaps that spirit has its compensations," she suggested.

Mrs. Mahna looked as though the two were talking in an alien tongue. She wondered what they were driving at, but when Murdong counted down seven twenties and one ten-dollar bill, she saw that the deal had been properly consummated whatever the tongue they bargained in.