"The only one with any sense I ever had," snarled the man. "But I don't care now," he continued, "I haven't long to live nohow; but I did hate to die with that secret, 'case another million years might pass afore it was found out. I'm satisfied so long as you 'uns knows it, 'case the world's bound to get it. But as for them cussed fools——!"
The man rapped on the table with his clinched fist.
"Hush!" said Torrence, "you might wake him up!"
The sailor grinned and scratched his head.
"No harm done, I reckon ef I did," he replied.
"No, but I told you my reasons for keeping mum!"
"Precisely; I mind your word. And the proofs, you found them all correct?"
"Quite so; but tell me don't you want any yourself?"
"Hell, no. I'll send you up a trunk full to-morrow. I've got all the swag I want—a good bed, plenty o' company, and a place to die in; for I tell you I can't last long. It's taken the stuffin' out o' me—but the secret—the secret—Well, thank God, I shan't die with it, and that's all I wanted."
Of course, this talk might almost as well have been in Hindoostanee, for aught I could make out of it. At one moment my fear of evil was aroused to a terrible pitch, at the next, I felt nothing but idle curiosity. I was, however, surprised to find so little that was intelligible in what I heard. Presently the men began turning over bundles of papers, and Torry having moved his chair, it was impossible to see what these were, and this fact may have helped arouse the awful suspicion that suddenly seized me; a thought which I am sure would never have presented itself under any but the bewildering circumstances in which I had been so blindly plunged. Could it be possible that the money which my brother had thrown about so freely, was counterfeit? A moment's reflection convinced me that it was not possible, and yet a terrible distrust had taken hold of me. For a moment I hesitated. My first impulse was to call out and ask what was the matter. It would have been the frank and natural thing to do, had my suspicions not been aroused, but as they were, I felt that such a procedure would be silly and fruitless. A burning desire to know consumed me, and I walked about the room in an agony of unrest. Again I looked through the keyhole, and was relieved to see no plates, stamps, dies or machinery of any kind. I drew a long breath. Then I recalled that there had been nothing in the conversation to indicate any such business; and I drew another breath. Finally, unable to gain the slightest clew to the mystery, I returned to my room, and went to bed in a very uncomfortable frame of mind.