“Oh I shall be frank,” panted Sorley, as though he had been running for a long distance. “I can trust you, and you want to marry my niece. It is to your benefit to be on my side, and then——”
Alan cut short this vague chatter. “Tell me about Bakche?”
“Well then, he did come to The Monastery about July last. He called here openly, and told me what Mrs. Verwin had stated. He gave me to understand that he was the representative of the Kam royal people, and knew all about the peacock.”
“How did he learn?”
“From some family papers which stated that the Begum had given the gems to George Inderwick because he saved her life and the life of her son.”
“Hum!” murmured Alan to himself. “So the excuse of having been told by an Inderwick in India it was lost.”
“Bakche wanted the peacock, and I told him that it was lost?”
“Did you say who had stolen it?”
“No, I didn’t. I thought if I did, that Miss Grison out of spite might give it to him, and so I should lose the treasure.”
“Did Bakche know that the peacock would reveal the whereabouts of——”