“This,” he said, “is Colonel Hill, your chief, Gordon. He came on from New York with me. Let him speak.”
“But the others are prisoners,” insisted Gordon.
“I have an idea,” Mr. Shaw said, “that Nestor knows more about the complications of this case than any one else. Suppose we let him sum it up?”
“I am sure he can do it!” growled Gordon.
Although it was now broad daylight, and all were tired and in need of sleep, the party went to a private parlor and Ned began the story of the case, first having a short talk with Jimmie, who had listened to a confession from Gaga.
“The plot against the Gatun dam,” he said, “did not originate with the business men who were looking for emeralds along the line of the cut. When I first sized up the case it seemed to me that the men interested in emeralds, including Mr. Shaw, were willing to delay the completion of the canal in order that they might have time to develop mines believed to be fabulously rich in emeralds.”
“That is the way it looked to me,” the lieutenant said.
“I began work along that line,” continued Ned, “for the news that Mr. Shaw was interested in emerald mines, and his refusal to reveal the contents of the papers he had secured, led me to the opinion that he had been approached by his partners with a proposition to destroy the Gatun dam, that he had their proposals in writing, and that he had refused to become a party to such an outrage.”
“Then why didn’t he tell us who the men were?” demanded Gordon.
“Because,” was the reply, “he did not think his partners, Mr. Harvey Chester and Col. Van Ellis, would go to the extremity proposed. He thought they would change their minds when the enormity of the crime was set before them. In fact, he suspected from the first that they were being urged on by others having private ends to gain by the destruction of the dam. Besides, he thought himself capable of handling the situation alone. Is that true, Mr. Shaw?”