The policeman started. “How did he know what we were talking about out here?” he demanded.
“He understand English, but not speak it,” replied Asuki readily.
To the policeman this explanation was satisfactory. Orme, of course, found in it a corroboration of his guess. Maku evidently did not wish suspicion directed against the motor-boat.
The policeman re-entered the station, eager to avail himself of the information which Maku was now disposed to give him.
Orme turned to the life-saver. “The Jap is lying,” he said.
“Think so?”
“Of course. If he understands English so well, he certainly knows how to make himself understood in it. His story of the bicycle is preposterous.”
“But what then?”
“Doesn’t it occur to you that perhaps the Jap himself is the robber? His intended victim may have got the better of him.”
“Yes,” said the young man doubtfully, “but the fellow ran.”