— If I don't get you first.

— You've had chances at me, said Decker. You must have had a lot of chances. So let's quit this bickering. Let us stop this horseplay. You don't want to kill me any more than I want to kill you. You just want to keep on playing. I'm sick of your silly games. I'm hungry and I'm tired and I want to get on home. I don't want to play hide-and-seek with you, chasing you up and down the woods.

By now he had figured out where Whisperer was located, and he shifted slightly in the path to face the spot where Whisperer was hidden in the underbrush.

— You had good luck this time, said Whisperer. You found a lot of gems. Maybe even diamonds.

— You know damn well I didn't. You were with me. You watched me all the time. I sensed you.

— You work hard, said Whisperer. You should find diamonds now and then.

— I'm not looking for diamonds.

— What do you do with what you find?

— Whisperer, why all these silly questions? You know what I do with them.

— You give them to the captain of the ship to sell at Gutshot. He steals you blind. He sells them for three times what he tells you that he gets.

— I suspect he does, said Decker. But what the hell? He needs the money more than I do. He's putting together a stake to buy that place on Apple Blossom. Why this sudden interest, Whisperer?

— You do not sell him all?

— That is true. I keep the better pieces.

— I could use some of your better pieces.

— You, Whisperer? What would you want of them?

— Shape them. Carve them. Change them.

— You are a carver, Whisperer?

— Not an accomplished carver, Decker. Just a hobbyist. Now he knew exactly where Whisperer was located. If he made the slightest move, he would let him have it. Whisperer wasn't fooling him with this talk of gems and carving. It was just a lot of talk to throw him off his balance.