don’t like the idea at all. Suppose somebody did want to play a crooked game—what a setting for it! Away out there on that ocean of sand, with only the Joshua trees for neighbors. Suppose I send Bob down there with your necklace, and he walks into a trap. Madden may not be at that lonely ranch. He may have gone east. He may even, by the time Bob gets there, have gone west—as they said in the war. Lying out on the desert, with a bullet in him—”
Victor laughed derisively. “Look here, your imagination is running away with you,” he cried.
Eden smiled. “Maybe it is,” he admitted. “Begins to look as though I were growing old, eh, Sally?” He took out his watch. “But where’s Bob? Ought to be here by now. If you don’t mind, I’ll use your telephone.”
He called the dock, and came away from the phone with a still more worried look. “The President Pierce got in a full forty-five minutes ago,” he announced. “Half an hour should bring them here.”
“Traffic’s rather thick at this hour,” Victor reminded him.
“Yes—that’s right, too,” Eden agreed. “Well, Sally, I’ve told you the situation. What do you think?”
“What should she think?” Victor cut in. “Madden’s bought the necklace and wants it delivered on the desert. It isn’t up to us to question his orders. If we do, he may get annoyed and call the whole deal off. No, our job is to deliver the pearls, get his receipt, and wait for his check.” His puffy white hands twitched eagerly.
Eden turned to his old friend. “Is that your opinion, Sally?”
“Why, yes, Alec,” she said. “I fancy Victor is right.”
