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It certainly was Kitwater's voice I had heard, but so hoarse with fury that at any other time I should scarcely have recognized it. "Cover him, Codd," he was shouting, "and if he dares to move shoot him down like the dog he is. You robbed us of our treasure, did you? And you sneaked away at night into the cover of the jungle, and left us to die or to be mutilated by those brutes of Chinese.
At first I was not able to recognize them, but as we ascended the steps to the pavilion, I was able to grasp the real facts of the case. "Good Heavens!" I muttered to myself, "that's Kitwater's voice." Then turning to Leglosse, I whispered, "We're too late, they're here before us."
Then little Codd sank down, and, placing his head upon his hands on the table, sobbed like a little child. "What is to be done?" I asked, in a horrified whisper. "Go down to the rocks and search for them," said the Sicilian officer, "but I doubt if we shall be able to find them; the sea is very deep off this point." We went! Kitwater's body we discovered, terribly mutilated upon the rocks.
"I have heard Mr. Kitwater's version of it," I answered cautiously. "I know that you robbed my clients of them and then disappeared!" "I did not rob them of the stones," he said, not in the least offended by the bluntness of my speech. "It is plain that you do not know how we obtained them. Perhaps it's as well that you should not, for there's more behind, and you'd go and get them. No!
Gideon Hayle was sitting down to a charming little dinner at the Café des Princes, and was smiling to himself as he thought of the success that had attended the trick he had played upon me. When I reached the charming little Surrey village of Bishopstowe, I could see that it bore out Kitwater's description of it.
It was a point in my favour, however, that he would not know until the evening what Kitwater's decision was, so I felt I had still some time to arrange my plan of action. Of one thing I was quite determined, and that was that he should be watched day and night from that minute, but not by Mr. Dickson.
"I wired to you from Charing Cross to say that I was coming. Did you not receive my message?" I remember the fact that, not having time to open them all before I was called away, I had put some of the telegrams on one side. As ill luck would have it, Miss Kitwater's must have been amongst these. I explained that I had been away from the house all day, and only that moment returned.
"Do you know I feel almost inclined to offer you the proverbial penny," said Miss Kitwater's voice behind me, at the drawing-room door. "Is it permissible to ask what you were thinking about?" I am not of course prepared to swear it, but I honestly believe for the first time for many years, I blushed.
I remembered the girl's pretty face and the trim neat figure. I am not a lady's man, far from it, nevertheless I thought that I should like to renew my acquaintance with her. "I shall be very pleased to accept Miss Kitwater's invitation, provided I have something of importance to communicate," I said.
I was a fool ever to have listened to your nonsensical yarn. I might have known it would have come to nothing. It's not the first time I've been treasure-hunting, but I'll swear it shall be the last. I've had enough of these fooleries." A dangerous light was gathering in Kitwater's eyes.
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