He took the stump of a cigar from his waistcoat pocket and lit it.
“John Maxell and I have a score to settle, and it is going to be settled very soon.”
“Tide and weather permitting,” said Timothy flippantly, recovering his self-possession. “All that vendetta stuff doesn’t go, Mr. Cartwright.” Then he asked in a flash: “Did you shoot at him last night?”
The man’s surprise was a convincing reply.
“Shoot at him? I only got to this place this afternoon. It’s more likely he’s waiting to shoot at me, for the sanatorium people will have telegraphed to him the moment I was missing.”
Timothy walked to the window and pulled down the blinds.
“Now tell me, Mr. Cartwright, before we go any farther, do you still persist in the story you told the court, that the judge was a party to your swindle?”
“A party to it!” said the other man furiously. “Of course he was! I was using the money of my companies to buy concessions from the Moorish Government, as much on his behalf as on mine. He wasn’t in the Brigot swindle—but he held shares in the company I was financing. We located a gold mine in the Angera country, and Maxell and I went across to Europe every year regularly to look after our property.
“We had to keep it quiet because we secured the concessions from the Pretender, knowing that he’d put the Sultan out of business the moment he got busy. If it had been known, the Sultan would have repudiated the concession, and our Government would have upheld the repudiation. Maxell speaks the language like a native, and I learnt enough to get on with El Mograb, who is the biggest thing amongst the rebel tribes. El Mograb wanted us to stay there, Maxell and I; he’d have made us shereefs or pashas, and I’d have done it, because I knew there was going to be an investigation sooner or later into the affairs of my companies. But Maxell wouldn’t have it. He always pretended that, so far as he knew, my financing was straight. You know the rest,” he said. “When I came before Maxell, I thought I was safe.”
“But Sir John allowed his affairs to be inspected,” said Timothy. “If he had been engaged with you in this Morocco business, there must have been papers to prove it.”