“Keep that long tongue of yours still, Jerry!” commanded the Captain. “Of course I see what must have happened! Stornaway was such a ninnyhammer that he made Coate suspicious that he had discovered the truth. When Coate found that he had left the house mysteriously, he came to look for him here, because it was Stornaway who told him about this cavern in the first place!”
“That,” said Stogumber bitterly, “is the only true thing you’ve said yet, Capting Staple!”
“If ever I seen such a death’s head on a mopstick!” exclaimed the irrepressible Chirk. “Nothing don’t please him!”
“Very well,” said the Captain, getting up. “If only the truth will do for you, let’s tell the truth—all of it! You sat at your ease in the Blue Boar while I baited a trap for Coate; you didn’t call up your patrol because I told you not to; you joined hands with a bridle-cull, and let him persuade you not to enter the cavern until I had done what I had to there; you—”
“That’ll do!” said Stogumber. “There’s ways and ways of telling the truth! And while you’re reckoning up the things I done, don’t you go forgetting who broke Coate’s neck, big ’un, else I’d have to remind you!”
“Oh, I won’t forget!” promised the Captain. “I was alone and unarmed—my reserves not having come up!—and I had a desperate fight with a man who held a loaded pistol. If, when we fell together on this rock-floor, his neck was broken, I fancy no one will blame me for it!”
A silence fell. Chirk coughed deprecatingly. “I ain’t never been one for throwing a rub in the way, like this swell-trap we’ve got here, Soldier, but I’m bound to say I ain’t so very anxious you and him should blab all the truth!”
The Captain laughed. “Nor I, Jerry! Come, Stogumber, what’s to be gained by blackening that wretched creature’s name? You found no proof that he was a party to these crimes, and although you say he would have shot me in the back you don’t know that either, for you were not here. He’s no longer alive to answer for himself: let him rest!”
Stogumber looked up at him under lowering brows. “You’d go into the witness-box and swear you knew him for an honest man, wouldn’t you, Capting Staple?” he growled. “On your oath, you would, I don’t doubt!”
“Stogumber, what could I do but that? His cousin is my wife!”