obbed 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! We obtained them honestly
enough at a certain place, and I was appointed to carry them. For this
reason I secured them in a belt about my waist. That night the Chinese
came down upon us and made us prisoners. They murdered our two native
servants, blinded Kitwater, and cut out Codd's tongue. I alone managed
to effect my escape. Leaving my two companions for dead, I managed to
get away into the jungle. Good Heavens! man, you can't imagine what I
suffered after that."

I looked at him and saw that his face had grown pale at the mere
recollection of his experiences.

"At last I reached the British outpost of Nampoung, on the
Burmah-Chinese border, where the officers took me in and played the
part of the good Samaritan. When I was well enough to travel, I made my
way down to Rangoon, where, still believing my late companions to be
dead, I shipped for England."

"As Mr. George Bertram," I said quietly. "Why under an assumed name
when, according to your story, you had nothing to fear?"

"Because I had good and sufficient reason for so doing," he replied.
"You must remember that I had a quarter of a million's worth of precious
stones in my possession, and, well, to put it bluntly, up to that time I
had been living what you might call a make-shift sort of life. For the
future I told myself I was going to be a rich man. That being so I
wanted to start with a clean sheet. You can scarcely blame me!"

I did not answer him on this point, but continued my cross-examination.

"You reached London, and sold some of the stones there, later on you
disposed of some more in Amsterdam. Why did you refuse the dealers your
name and address?"

Once more he was quite equal to the occasion.

"Because if I had told them, everybody would have got to know it, and,
to be perfectly frank with you, I could not feel quite certain that
Kitwater and Codd were really dead."

"By that I am to presume that you intended if possible to swindle them
out of their share?" I asked, not a little surprised by his admission.

"Once more, to be quite frank with you, I did. I have no desire to be
rude, but I rather fancy you would have done the same had y