The "proper owner" of the packet was, at that moment, on the Atlantic
Ocean, travelling toward the United States.
Four other pretended owners of the Grand Duchess Theodorica's jewels,
totally unconscious of anything impending which might impair their
several titles to the gems, were now gathered together in a wilderness
within a few miles of one another.
Jose Quintana lay somewhere in the forests with his gang, fiercely
planning the recovery of the treasure of which Clinch had once robbed
him. Clinch squatted on his runway, watching the mountain flank with
murderous eyes. It was no longer the Flaming Jewel which mattered. His
master passion ruled him now. Those who had offered violence to Eve
must be reckoned with first of all. The hand that struck Eve Strayer
had offered mortal insult to Mike Clinch.
As for the third pretender to the Flaming Jewel, Jake Kloon, he was now
travelling in a fox's circle toward Drowned Valley -- that shaggy
wilderness of slime and tamarack and depthless bog which touches the
northwest base of Star Peak. He was not hurrying, having no thought of
pursuit. Behind him plodded Leverett, the trap thief, very, very busy
with his own ideas.
To Leverett's repeated requests that Kloon halt and open the packet to
see what it contained, Kloon gruffly refused.
"What do we care what's in it?" he said. "We get ten thousand apiece
over our rifles for it from them guys. Ain't it a good enough job for
you?"
"Maybe we make more if we take what's inside it for ourselves," argued
Leverett. "Let's take a peek, anyway."
"Naw. I don't want no peek nor nothin'. The ten thousand comes too
easy. More might scare us. Let that guy, Quintana, have what's his'n.
All I ask is my rake-off. You allus was a dirty, thieving mink, Earl.
Let's give him his and take ours and git. I'm going to Albany to live.
You bet I don't stay in no woods where Mike Clinch dens."
They plodded on, arguing, toward their rendezvous with Quintana's
outpost on the edge of drowned valley.
* * * * *
The fourth pretender to the pearls, rubies, and great gem called the
Flaming Jewel, stolen from the young Grand Duchess Theodorica of
Esthonia by Jose Quintana, was an unconscious pretender, entirely
innocent of the role assigned her by Clinch.
For Eve Strayer had never heard where the packet came from or what it
contained. All she knew was that her stepfather had told her that it
belonged to her. And the knowledge left her incurious.
* * * * *