This was not perfectly understood. “It’s true! Nat made me go with them, because I know the roads here! I did not wish to! He forced me, I tell you! I was in his power and could not refuse him!”
“You would not have been for long in his power had you carried the information to Bow Street of what he planned to do,” said John.
Tears began to run down Stornaway’s ashen cheeks. “I wish I had! I wish I were well out of the business! Nat said there would be no danger. I never dreamed he meant to shoot the guards! He swore they should be bound and gagged only!”
“How could two armed men be bound and gagged, you fool?”
“I don’t know—I didn’t think! I had no hand in it!” Stornaway repeated desperately.
“No hand in it! Was it Coate, then, who knew where the gold could be hidden safely? Or was it you who knew that somewhere in these hills there is a cavern, in which your father once broke his leg? A cavern which has been closed ever since, and is now almost—but not quite!—forgotten?”
If there had been any suspicion in Stornaway’s mind that the Captain could not possibly know so much about him as he had alarmingly hinted, this evidence that he was uncannily in possession of the one piece of information which could more effectively than all the rest implicate him in the robbery, effectually banished it. He looked so ghastly that John wondered whether he might be going to swoon; and although he opened and shut his mouth several times no sound came from it.
“As yet,” said John, faintly stressing the words, “the Runner doesn’t know of the existence of this cavern. But I fancy I could tell him whereabouts to look for it. Where had you been, Mr. Stornaway, when I encountered you very early in the morning on the lane that leads over the hills? And for what purpose were you carrying a lantern?”
Only a whimper answered him. He remained silent and motionless, waiting. After a long pause, Stornaway whispered: “What do you mean to do? Why have you come here?”
“I am not perfectly sure yet what I mean to do,” John replied. “I came to discover the truth from you. Where is Ned Brean?”