Page:Raymond Spears--Diamond Tolls.djvu/217

 "Oh!" she laughed, and then seriously: "It's this old river. Here I am in that man's boat. I've kept it—just as though"

"Oh, it's yours, according to river practice," Urleigh declared. "Even Gost said that when a lady has shot a man she has a right to the loot."

"Of course, it's the diamonds that worry him."

"And me, and everyone else," Urleigh shook his head. "At least, that's what did worry me. Now" "Now it's something else," she took his words. "Never mind that. I'm perfectly competent. It's my boat. I'm a river pirate, I suppose. And you're a shanghaied victim, held for ransom, so to speak. Really, I don't know, yet, how much you are worth."

"Eh?" he demanded.

"Just accept conditions as they are," she told him, coldly. "I'm perturbed about the man down the river. You were following us both. I haven't the diamonds—and that man Gost would kill him just to search his boat. The worst of it is, if we don't find Murdong first, Murdong will be murdered, and Gost'll get the diamonds."

"Then—then you gave Murdong the diamonds?" Urleigh exclaimed. "Gost was right then?"

"Do you suppose I'd have done what I did, that I'd have you here on this boat for any other reason except to save a life—the life of a dear boy who doesn't