"That is my intention, as soon as I can get a warrant. In the mean time, I'm not likely to lose sight of you, my fine fellow."
"What's your charge?"
"Murder!"
"Whose murder?"
"The murder of a Polynesian girl called Tera, or Bithiah."
"It's a lie!" cried Finland, violently. "I never killed the poor girl. I loved her too well to lay a finger on her."
Johnson, who had remained silent till now, turned to the sailor.
"Unhappy man," he said solemnly, "do not add falsehood to your sins of murder and theft. Tera left this house with the pearls, and when her dead body was found the pearls were gone. Your captain, Shackel, came to blackmail me for----"
"What, Shackel?" cried Jack, savagely; "the blamed old shellback."
"Yes; Captain Jacob declared that I had sold the pearls in London. He demanded five hundred pounds as the price of his silence. I declined to compound a felony, and at once informed Slade, here, of the man's threat. Slade went to London for the purpose of seeing this gentleman to whom the pearls had been sold, and----"