Len flung his head back in a boisterous laugh.
“Too big?” he cried scornfully. “It just couldn’t be!”
Jim’s unyielding tone promptly brought the other to seriousness.
“How?” he asked soberly. “Maybe I’ve got some of your notion. But let’s talk it out.”
Jim knocked out his pipe and refilled it. He lit it thoughtfully. Then he turned smilingly to his friend.
“Say, I’m as crazy for this thing as you, boy,” he said in his quiet way. “But I don’t figger to let it snow my senses under. You’re right. It’s been two years an’ more of hell gettin’ it, and we want it all, after that. But I seem to see something of what was back of Charlie’s mind quittin’ the game an’ never returning to it. Get a look down there.” He pointed at a rough sheltered landing with a tubby, cutter-rigged fishing smack lying moored there. “That’s our link with the world outside. An’ we got to get out not pounds, but tons of metal if I’m a judge. We got to market it an’ keep it quiet, or we’ll have the Australian Government jumping in on us, to say nothing of all the rest of the world.” He shook his head. “How’s it to be done? It can’t.”
Len’s whole manner had undergone a complete transformation. All the excited delight had passed out of his eyes. They had suddenly become hard, and shrewd, and full of keen resolution. The thought of failure with the prize in their hands had stirred him to a feeling like that of a mother who sees her offspring about to be snatched from her arms. He was ready to fight with the last breath of life for this thing he so dearly coveted.
“Here, you can’t tell me a thing I haven’t thought, Jim,” he cried. “All this stuff’s been in my brain tank ever since we bought that barge of ours down in Perth. I’d got it all then. An’ I planned it all before we beat it up the coast in that old coaster, with our craft on a tow-line. You’re right. It’s got to be a secret. If we shout we’ll lose half the game. Maybe we’ll lose it all. We’re not going to shout. No. I best tell you, an’ we’ll sort out the metal from the tailings. You’ve a cautious head and a clear brain. Maybe you’ll see any weak spot lying around.”
Jim nodded in ready agreement. He had achieved his purpose. Len was down to hard facts.