"I don't see it," said Milsom, "the fellow's a crook, all these Yankee detectives are grafters. He saw a chance of a big rake off and took it, fifty-fifty of a million fortune is fine commission!"
"You're wrong. I'd like to think as you do. Man! Can't you see that his every action proves that he knows all about the Green Rust?"
"Eh?"
Milsom sat up.
"How—what makes you say that?"
"It's clear enough. He has already some idea of the scheme. He has been pumping old Heyler; he even secured a sample of the stuff—it was a faulty cultivation, but it might have been enough for him. He surmised that I had a special use for old Millinborn's money and why I was in a hurry to get it."
The silence which followed lasted several minutes.
"Does anybody except Beale know? If you settled him...?"
"We should have to finish him to-night" said van Heerden, "that is what I have been thinking about all day."
Another silence.