CHAPTER 25Afterward, Culver and Jimmy Jones staggered up the companionway with the dead body and laid it on the poop. Instantly the voice of the lookout shouted from high above: “On deck, there! Valdez is lying dead as a rat on the poop! Valdez is dead!”
Other voices started shouting. Culver went to the break of the poop and held up a hand that checked the rush of feet aft.
“I told you it was a gunshot!” someone was shouting, triumphantly. “Ay, ay, Culver! Good work old son!”
“Keep forward for a moment,” said Culver. “It’s true that Valdez is dead. Is there a man here to say a service over him before he’s buried over the side?”
“The pearls! The pearls!” shouted Burke. “What in hell are you yammering about Valdez for? Where is Toth’s stuff?”
“Safely put away,” said Culver. “Where it wi
