He seated himself upon the trunk of a fallen tree, and there he sat for many minutes, shivering as if from cold. At last he turned and spoke in a weak voice--quite unlike his own--to Joshua Trust.
"Get me water, you dog," he ordered, "and be quick about it."
Trust went to a stream that was not far away; and even as the man entered the thickets, I thought that I heard something move beneath the trees, a little to his right.
He came back with the water, and Amos drained it at a gulp.
"I would know this," said Trust, standing before them both with folded arms. "Who’s master now? Who takes the bridge? Whose orders am I expected to obey?"
"That’s a matter for yourself to settle," answered Mr. Forsyth. "Here we are, in the midst of this almighty wilderness; and if we don’t hold together, as like as not we die. For myself, I am not one who, once he has decided on a certain course of action, is easily turned aside. I have come this distance to behold the Greater Treasure, and I do not go back again until my quest is ended."
At that, Amos brightened up in a manner truly wonderful. The very thought of gold was to him a kind of tonic. He got again upon his feet.
"Why, there you speak some sense!" he cried. "I am the last man in the world to go back upon my friends. But we can do nothing without the map."
"Leave that to me," said Forsyth; "and, sooner or later, I will find it. A little subtlety and sense may very well succeed where cold-blooded murder must have failed."
And thereupon Forsyth turned to me and, taking me by both shoulders, held me at arm’s length.
"Dick Hannibal," said he--for he had a singular sense of humour, quite his own--"I would have you, as you love me, and are greatly in my debt, tell us the whole truth; for I am convinced in my mind that you know all there is to know."
I shook my head. I was resolved to be as stubborn as before. And besides, I had every reason now to think that John Bannister was hovering on the outskirts of the camp, and might at any moment hasten to my aid.
Forsyth waited for some minutes. Then he shrugged his shoulders.
"I see," said he, "that neither threats nor violence will be of much avail. You may think differently, however, when I prove to you that I am neither such a fool, nor yet so soft of heart, as you appear to think me.