“I don’t say that you murdered the man yourself, but you know who did.”
“Perhaps I do,” answered the man significantly; “but you can’t expect me to give you that information without payment.”
“Oh, if you want money——”
Bakche flushed through the clear brown of his skin. “I do not want money, Mr. Fuller; a gentleman of my rank does not take money. I only desire a share of the jewels which rightfully belong to me—the whole of them.”
“I think not,” said Alan, while Latimer kept step beside him in silence, leaving his friend to adjust matters. “There was a proper assignment of the jewels made by the Rajah of Kam, the Begum and their vizier. All is in order, Mr. Bakche, and you have not a leg to stand on.”
The man was silent for a few moments in sheer surprise at this very authoritative statement. “How do you know this, Mr. Fuller?”
“I read the statement myself, and saw the jewels of——”
“You saw the jewels,” almost shrieked Bakche, clenching and unclenching his hands; “then you have—you have——” he could speak no further.
“Yes,” growled Dick, breaking his self-imposed silence, “Fuller and Miss Inderwick have solved the riddle of the peacock, and have found the jewels.”
“Where are they? where are they?”