Part 16 (1/2)
Chet turned a flaming face toward this new accuser.
”Don't you dare call me a thief!” he shouted. ”The diamonds are mine!
I never stole them. Give them back to me, you--you--river pirates!”
”That's good, coming from him!” grinned Alex. ”Come on, little one, and tell us who these stones belong to.”
”I tell you they are mine!” Chet again insisted. ”I never stole them!
You give them back to me! If I had the strength I'd tear your heart out!”
”Of course!” laughed Clay. ”Of course you'd do something desperate if you had the strength! But don't trouble yourself about the diamonds!
If they belong to you, you shall have them. But we don't want to harbor a thief, you know!”
”I don't believe you'll ever give them back to me!” sobbed the boy.
”I've brought them down the river, all this way, to be robbed of them at last!”
In a spasm of grief the lad threw himself on the cabin floor and burst into an uncontrollable fit of weeping. The boys stood around for a moment, looking rather sheepishly at each other, and then all left the cabin but Clay.
”Come kid,” the latter said, lifting Chet from the floor and holding him in his arms like a baby, ”don't act like you'd lost your last friend! If you're honest, you've found friends instead of losing them.
You shall have the diamonds back, if you can show that they belong to you. Brace up, now, and go on to bed!”
Chet regarded Clay through wet eyes for a moment and then slipped away to the bunk which had been set aside for him. The frank inspection seemed to have in a measure restored his equanimity. Clay sat down by the side of the bunk, the diamonds in his hands.
”Why don't you tell me all about it?” he asked of the boy. ”Why not settle the whole matter right here, and so have done with it? Where did you get them?”
”I've promised not to tell,” was the reply.
”You are not making a very good beginning,” Clay admonished.
Chet made no reply whatever, but turned his face away. Clay went on, patiently:
”Where is your home?”
”I haven't got any home,” was the reply. ”I never had one.”
”But you must belong somewhere,” Clay insisted. ”Where did you live last?”
”I'm not going to tell you anything at all,” Chet replied, ”until I see the man that made me promise to keep silent, and until he gives me leave to talk with you.”
”Is the man you mention Red, the riverman?” asked Clay.
”Didn't I just tell you that I wasn't going to talk?” demanded the boy.
”All right,” Clay responded. ”Take all the time you want! In the meantime, I'll keep the diamonds. Will you promise to remain on the boat?”
”If I had the diamonds, I'd quit you right now!” said the boy, savagely. ”I may as well tell you the truth. If you keep the diamonds, I'll stay until I get them, but I'll find them and take them with me if I can. You just mind that!”
”You're a frank little chap, anyway!” laughed Clay.
”I wasn't brought up to tell lies!” was the astonis.h.i.+ng reply.