"Oh, go on," said Colpster, with a cynical smile. "I know that Mr. Theodore is not a favourite with anyone."
"How can he be, sir, when he behaves so badly? He insulted me and--but that is neither here nor there, sir, and I have no time to talk of that matter. I told my mother that I would get the emerald somehow, and when I landed at Nagasaki, I set about looking for it."
"But in what way?"
"Well, you see, sir, my mother learned from you all about the giving of the emerald to that Shogun chap, and then she told me how Miss Mara, in some funny way, knew that it was at the Temple of Kitzuki. I went there on the chance, and a man who kept a tea-shop told me all about the jewel. He said that it had been given to the temple by a Mikado. I thought it was a Shogun."
"The Shogun, who got it from Will Adams, gave it to the Mikado, and he presented it to the temple," explained Colpster. "Go on."
"Oh, that's it, is it, sir? Well, then," he went on, twirling his cap, "I got a sight of the Jewel in the temple and stole it."
"But how, when it was so carefully guarded?"
"I don't think it was guarded over-much," said Pentreddle thoughtfully. "You see, sir, the tea-shop man told me that the emerald was under the spell of the Earth Spirit--he called him some queer name I can't remember--to keep away earthquakes. No Japanese would dare to touch the jewel, and it lay--as I saw--on a small altar near the shrine. I managed to stop inside the temple after dark, and stole it."
"How did you get away?" said the Squire, wondering at this daring.
"I'll tell you that another day, sir, as it is getting late. I did manage to get away and stow the Jewel on board my ship; but I was followed."