And this
notion developed another; if one were seeking the wreck of any
one of these treasure caravans he would be more likely to find it
in the El-Khali than in the Shamo."
Barclay moved away from the fire, got a chair and sat down. He
was across the hearth from me. He looked about the room and at
the curtained windows that shut out the blue night.
"You can't sleep," he went on, "so I might just as well tell you
this. A good deal of it is what the lawyers called dicta . . .
obiter dicta; when the judge gets to putting in stuff on the side
. . . but it's a long time 'til daylight."
He had taken a small chair and he sat straight in it after the
manner of a big man.
"You see the treasure carried south across the Shamo would be
`gold wheat' (dust, we'd call it), packed in green skins . . .
you couldn't find that. But the caravans crossing the El-Khali
would carry this gold in bricks for the great west trade. Now a
gold brick is indestructible; you can't think of anything that
would last forever like a gold brick. Nothing would disturb it,
water and sun are alike without effect on it . . . .
"That was Tavor's notion, and he went right after it.
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