"Why not?" demanded Georgiades sullenly;--"we shall have worse to face before we see the Place de l'Opéra."
"There remains, also, Eddie Abrams," remarked Quintana.
Crooks never betray their attorney. Everybody expressed a willingness to have the five shares of plunder properly assessed to satisfy the fee due to Mr. Abrams.
"Ver' well," nodded Quintana, "are you satisfy, messieurs, to divide an' disperse?"
Sard said, heavily, that they ought to stick together until they arrived in New York.
Sanchez sneered, accusing Sard of wanting a bodyguard to escort him to his own home. "In this accursed forest," he insisted, "five of us would attract attention where one alone, with sufficient stealth, can slip through into the open country."
"Two by two is better," said Picquet. "You, Sanchez, shall travel alone if you desire----"
"Divide the gems first," growled Georgiades, "and then let each do what pleases him."
"That," nodded Quintana, "is also my opinion. It is so settle. Attention!" Two pistols were in his hands as by magic. With a slight smile he laid them on the moss beside him.
He then spread a large white handkerchief flat on the ground; and, from his pockets, he poured out the glittering cascade. Yet, like a feeding panther, every sense remained alert to the slightest sound or movement elsewhere; and when Georgiades grunted from excess emotion, Quintana's right hand held a pistol before the grunt had ceased.
It was a serious business, this division of loot; every reckless visage reflected the strain of the situation.
Quintana, both pistols in his hands, looked down at the scintillating heap of jewels.
"I estimate two and one quartaire million of dollaires," he said simply. "It has been agree that I accep' for me the erosite gem known as The Flaming Jewel. In addition, messieurs, it has been agree that I accep' for myse'f one part in five of the remainder."
A fierce silence reigned. Every wolfish eye was on the leader. He smiled, rested his pair of pistols on either knee.
"Is there," he asked softly, "any gentleman who shall objec'?"
"Who," demanded Georgiades hoarsely, "is to divide for us?"
"It is for such purpose," explained Quintana suavely, "that my frien', Emanuel Sard, has arrive. Monsieur Sard is a brokaire of diamon's, as all know ver' well. Therefore, it shall be our frien' Sard who will divide for us what we have gain to-day by our--industry."
