“The trouble with you, Jack,” said Mr. Babbacombe, following, aloud, the trend of these thoughts, “is that you’re neither to lead nor drive!”
John glanced down at him, amusement springing to his face. “Yes, I am. Why, what a fellow you make me out to be!”
“Once you’ve taken a notion into your silly head, one might as well try reasoning with a mule as with you!” insisted Babbacombe.
“Well,” said John apologetically, wrinkling his brow, “a man ought to be able to make up his mind for himself, and once he’s done so he shouldn’t let himself be turned from his purpose. I daresay I’m wrong, but so I think. In this case, I know very well what I’m about—and I swear to you I’m not funning, Bab! I own, at the outset I thought it might be good sport to keep the gate for a day or two, and try whether I could discover what was afoot here, but that’s all changed, and I’m serious—oh, more than ever in my life! And also I am quite determined,” he added.
“Something,” said Babbacombe, looking narrowly at him, “has happened to you, Jack, and I’m dashed if I know what it can be!” He paused hopefully, but the Captain only laughed. “And another thing I don’t know is what the deuce there is in this affair to put you into such high gig! I’d as lief handle live coals myself!”
“No, would you? I wouldn’t have missed such an adventure for a fortune!” John said ingenuously.
“Wait until you find yourself explaining to a judge and a jury how you came to aid and abet these rogues—for that’s what you are doing, dear boy, every instant you delay to tell what you’ve discovered to the Redbreast, or to the nearest magistrate!”
“Oh, no, I’m not! Now, consider, Bab! If Stogumber knew—if he had proof—that Coate and Stornaway are the men he’s trying to catch, he would not be prowling about the district, seeking to come by information. He can do no more than suspect them; it may be that he does not even do that, but has merely some inkling that the treasure is to be looked for here. Of course he would be glad to recover it immediately, but if I know anything of the matter he won’t be content only to find those chests. To perform his task successfully, he must also apprehend the thieves. Good God, Bab, there were two guards shot dead at the ford, poor fellows, and the gatekeeper stabbed, and left to petrify in that cavern, and an attempt made to murder Stogumber himself!”
“Yes, and one of these pretty rascals you mean to shield!” struck in Babbacombe.
“Well, yes,” John admitted. “I must do so, for the sake of—of others, who are quite guiltless, and don’t deserve to have an honourable name smirched. If it were not for that I wouldn’t shield him! Lord, I’d hand him over to Stogumber, and think the world well rid of him—even though I doubt very much whether he has played any but a minor role in the affair! I am very sure he knew nothing of Brean’s death, until he found his body in the cavern, and I’d go bail it was Coate and his rogue of a servant—if servant he is!—who shot down the guards. His part in this was to provide the safe hiding place for those chests, and shelter for Coate and Gunn. Shelter near at hand, too! You may depend upon it, Coate would not go far from where the chests are hid!”