at if they do not come
back enemies. But when they set out each with his own hidden secret,
each with his own private suspicion of his companion, with a gnawing
enmity between them which has been changed into a show of friendship
only by force of circumstance, when the object of their journey is a
possession over which they have quarrelled before and parted company,
concerning which they are already secretly jealous, then the final
relationship of those two men can be forecast without any fear of
error.

Before they had reached the Forbidden River they had ceased to
converse. By the time that they had landed at the hut, their nerves
were jangled. Before they had been working there many days they had
thought their way over all their old grievances, and, like petulant
children, were on the lookout for any new cause of offence. The cause
had come when Spurling, tired with rocking the cradle, his face and
hands swollen by the sun and mosquito-bitten, had said, "I don't see
why we should take all this trouble. I'm going to quit work."

Granger was attending to the flume which they had constructed. "You're
going to do no such thing," he had said.

"Yes, I am; you're not my master and I shan't ask your permission.
There's as much gold as we shall require in those two sacks which the
Man with the Dead Soul washed out. If you've got such a scrupulous
conscience, you can dig out your share; but I'm not going to help
you."

"So you've turned thief now, in addition to your other profession,"
was the retort which Granger had thrown back.

Out of such small foolishnesses had arisen quarrel after quarrel, so
that it had become only necessary for Spurling to make a statement for
Granger to contradict him, or for Granger to express a desire for
Spurling to thwart its accomplishment. Day by day they would toil
together, digging out the muck, emptying it into the sluice-boxes or
testing it in the pan, without exchanging a word; then some trifling
difficulty would arise, for which, perhaps, neither of them was
responsible, and they would seize the opportunity to goad one another
on to murder with the evil of what they said. On one point only were
they agreed--the gathering of the most wealth in the shortest time;
for wealth meant to them escape and the preserving of their lives. To
this end they feverishly laboured both day and night, reserving no
special hours for sleep and rest. Yet, even in their escape, as has
been seen, they d