Gilderman answered nothing, but if looks could have killed the old professor, who did not even look at him, and Dick, who grinned maliciously full in his face, both of them would have preceded Grosman.
Just then a faint shot sounded in the direction of the pursuit. It was followed by another and another . . . then a regular fusillade.
"They are kneeling on the top of the first dune," called Jelder from a little rise a few yards away. "Now they are mounting again and coming back."
"Then he's got away," said Dick, "his horse was fresh and they looked as though they had ridden far."
"Curse him, may he roast in hell," whispered the dying man, "but what he said was true."
"Hush," said the professor, "do not try to talk now. Save your breath, man, and tell your story only to the police. And remember I can do but little for you your time is very short."
By this the police came cantering back into camp. "We hit him," said the wachtmeister. "I saw him stagger in the saddle just as he got into the big dunes. His horse was fresh and ours were fagged, it was useless to follow farther. If he is badly hit we shall find him at the waterhole, if not, he will run right into the arms of the patrol we meet there. And now, what is all this about?"
Gilderman took up the tale in voluble German, and it was now evident that, shaken by the protestations of the dying man, and of his murderer, he was now suspicious of Jelder, who had held a key to the box in common with himself. He had been awakened by the outcry that the prospectors made when they saw the empty box lying by the side of the bed. His key he remarked pointedly was still fast round his neck perhaps, he added significantly, Jelder had left his lying about overnight? Jelder flushed angrily, and drawing his key out by the thin gold chain that secured it beneath his vest, shook it in Gilderman's face, when mutual recriminations began without undue loss of time.
The old professor's wine had done its work well in more ways than one.
Their colleagues, Zweiter and Spattboom, instantly took sides, and so they wrangled and vociferated, what time the big German wachtmeister made voluminous notes in a big pocket book.