Page:Raymond Spears--Diamond Tolls.djvu/221

 b'low," he explained. "Theh's deer down on some of them bars, too, and back in the bayous."

That was reasonable. No one there who would not have liked to stalk wild geese themselves, and shantyboaters used long, slim bullets on that kind of game.

Then Gost headed away down the river in the late evening of the day. Sunset found him around the first bend, and night found him still under way, settling down for the long chase that he thought was ahead of him.

"They'll meet down b'low, and they'll quit the river," he told himself. "I'm jes' goin' to shoot their heads off. I've quit monkey-shining with them; now that I know 'em. You can't trust nobody; they get you goin' an' they get you comin'. I want them diamonds. I got 'em an' they're mine."

He was willing, but his flesh was weak. He was dead tired within three hours following sunset, and accordingly he turned into an eddy and cast over his anchor.

"I work alone afteh this," he declared. "I was a fool to fall for that Urleigh's song 'n dance. He neveh in gawd's world was anything but a crook, an' Delia's another one."

The following day, at dawn, he set forth again, and keeping in mid-channel, he drove for Spanish Moss