“It’s simple enough. The nihilists had ordered the Professor to bring his daughter with him on this trip, and he didn’t want to do it. Just why he objected, I’m not sure, though I have my suspicions; but he did object most strenuously. But he didn’t dare to refuse either to go on this expedition or to take his daughter. He was half mad when I went to him and asked for Olga. To cut it short, he agreed that I might marry her if I would find a substitute who looked like her and who would go in her place. I did find such a substitute in the person of Miss Florence Lee, the lady who accompanied your expedition. She was always a cold-blooded, calculating piece, for all her mask of flippancy, and I guess she and Wilkins framed it up between them to sell out. Now do you see?”
“Yes, I see.” Caruth spoke heavily. “Why didn’t you put me on?” he asked. “If I had known, I might have prevented all this.”
“You couldn’t have prevented it. I’m absolutely certain that your expedition has been watched, almost from the first. It was madness for Miss Fitzhugh to think she could succeed. Besides, you didn’t take me into your confidence or ask my advice; and, even if you had, I should probably have been compelled to keep silence for the sake of my wife and father-in-law. For—make no mistake about this, Caruth—what I have told you must go no further. The Professor may be dead, as you suppose, but Olga is alive, and I don’t want to draw any nihilist vengeance on her. You mustn’t talk.”
“I won’t.”
“The situation is reasonably clear now, isn’t it, except about how those fellows got the gold and where they have taken it? But I guess you’d better put the gold out of your mind. Wherever it is, it is out of reach, and a good thing, too. Of course, as a matter of salvage, the finder of an abandoned wreck is entitled to the bigger part of her value. But when the finders have deliberately brought about the wreck, the ethics of the case get mixed. I think you’ll be glad some day that you missed it.”
“Perhaps! If I get the girl! Not unless. Great Scott, Bristow. I’d do worse than steal for Marie’s sake! You’ve just been married yourself, and you know how it is.”
Bristow grinned. “So it’s got to the ‘Marie’ point, now, has it? By the way, where is the lady?”
“Gone! The moment we got here, she left the ship, saying that she had been summoned before the Inner Circle—whatever that is.”
Bristow whistled softly. “I suppose you will wait for her to return?” he questioned.
“I shall. I have nothing else to wait for. The whole trip has been a flat failure, and there is nothing for me to do but to sneak back to New York with my tail between my legs. I wouldn’t mind if she would go with me, but I fear——”