k of famine, savage beasts, and savage men to their position in the
midst of traitors.

What, then, was to be done? Some were for killing the Master on the
spot; but Harris assured them that would be a crime without profit,
since the secret of the treasure must die along with him that buried it.
Others were for desisting at once from the whole enterprise and making
for New York; but the appetising name of treasure, and the thought of
the long way they had already travelled, dissuaded the majority. I
imagine they were dull fellows for the most part. Harris, indeed, had
some acquirements, Mountain was no fool, Hastie was an educated man; but
even these had manifestly failed in life, and the rest were the dregs of
colonial rascality. The conclusion they reached, at least, was more the
offspring of greed and hope than reason. It was to temporise, to be wary
and watch the Master, to be silent and supply no further aliment to his
suspicions, and to depend entirely (as well as I make out) on the chance
that their victim was as greedy, hopeful, and irrational as themselves,
and might, after all, betray his life and treasure.

Twice in the course of the next day Secundra and the Master must have
appeared to themselves to have escaped; and twice they were
circumvented. The Master, save that the second time he grew a little
pale, displayed no sign of disappointment, apologised for the stupidity
with which he had fallen aside, thanked his recapturers as for a
service, and rejoined the caravan with all his usual gallantry and
cheerfulness of mien and bearing. But it is certain he had smelled a
rat; for from thenceforth he and Secundra spoke only in each other's
ear, and Harris listened and shivered by the tent in vain. The same
night it was announced they were to leave the boats and proceed by foot,
a circumstance which (as it put an end to the confusion of the portages)
greatly lessened the chances of escape.

And now there began between the two sides a silent contest, for life on
the one hand, for riches on the other. They were now near that quarter
of the desert in which the Master himself must begin to play the part of
guide; and using this for a pretext of persecution, Harris and his men
sat with him every night about the fire, and laboured to entrap him into
some admission. If he let slip his secret, he knew well it was the
warrant for his death; on the other hand, he durst not refuse their
questions, and must appear to help