"Not Barnes. Pill I am again, and Mrs. Pill I'll be to the end of my days. To think Thomas should be a blackguard. Pill drank, I don't deny, but he didn't forge and coin, and—"
"Wasn't clever enough, perhaps," said Hale from the bed in a weak voice, "oh, there you are, Jennings. Get that fool out of the room and listen to what I have to tell you. I haven't much time. I am going fast."
Jennings induced Mrs. Pill, as she now insisted on being called, to leave the room. Then he sat down on the bed beside the dying man. Atkins remained at the door, and the doctor seated himself by Hale's head with a glass of brandy. It might be needed for the revival of Hale, who, having lost much blood, was terribly weak. But the poor wretch was bent upon confession, and even told his story with pride.
"You had a job to take us, Jennings," he said with a weak chuckle. "I don't know how you found us out though."
"It's too long a story to tell. But, first of all, tell me did Maraquito come here to-night?"
"No. Are you after her?"
"Yes, I know she isn't an invalid."
"Ah, she diddled you there," said Hale with another chuckle, "a very clever woman is Maraquito. I wished to marry her, but now I'm done for. After all, I'm not sorry, since my pals are taken. But I did think I'd have been able to go to South America and marry Maraquito. I've made plenty of money by this game. Sometimes we sweated four hundred sovereigns a day. The factory has been here for five years, Jennings—"
"I know. The man Maxwell, who was Susan Grant's father, made the secret entrance, and you had him killed."
"No, I didn't. Miss Loach did that. I thought she was a fool at the time. I told her so. We could have taken Maxwell as a pal. He was willing to come. But she thought death was best."