HAPTER XVII.

The week following their arrival at their destination was remarkable in
more senses than one. After the success which had attended Moreas'
search among the sands of the river-bed it was impossible for him to be
idle for a moment. It was no sooner light than he was at work; he kept
at it with feverish eagerness until darkness fell; and grudged every
hour until dawn should reappear again. Under the influence of their
success his old antagonism for Max seemed to have left him. If he were
not quite so friendly as he had once been, it seemed as if he were at
least anxious to make amends for his conduct in the immediate past. One
thing, however, puzzled Max more than he liked to say, and made him
suspicious of the other's overtures. This was the fact that Moreas
invariably preferred to do his work alone, and did not appear to mind
very much what excuse he made so long as he achieved his object. It is
true that in the evening he invariably added his day's findings to the
general store with scrupulous exactness, but on no account would he
allow his companion to be present at the washings. Scarcely a day passed
without their discovering something of value.

By the end of the month they had discovered six stones of considerable
size, fourteen medium, and some twenty or thirty small ones, varying
from a quarter to a carat each. These they placed in a small bag and
religiously counted every evening.

Influenced by such a run of luck, Moreas' manner underwent yet another
change. He became geniality itself, upbraided himself for his former
treatment of Max, and declared that if he had searched the whole world
through he could not have found a better companion. He vowed that he
entertained the affection of a brother for him.

How, considering all this, Max's suspicions were first aroused, I cannot
say. It may have been that the other's excessive eagerness to recognise
the honesty with which every evening he himself handed over the stones
he had collected may have had something to do with it. It is certain,
however, that, little by little, a feeling of positive distrust was born
in his mind. In vain he tried to dismiss it from his thoughts. The more
he told himself that he was doing the other an injustice, the stronger
the feeling became that Moreas was playing a double game. He determined
to watch him closely, and did so without, however, detecting anything
suspicious. For the reason that they worked in different pl