"I agree with you," answered my companion. "Good-day, Mr. Birch, and thank you for your courtesy."
"Don't mention that, I beg, sir," returned the affable Birch. "I only wish I could do more to help you in your search for your friend."
I shook hands with him in my turn, and was following Leversidge towards the verandah steps, when Birch called me back. Sinking his voice he said, "What is it, Dick, my lad? What's your little game? Why do you want this swearing parson so badly?"
"A matter of business," I answered; "a mere matter of business."
Birch smiled knowingly, and winked at me. "A Hatton Garden bit of business, I suppose," he said. "You surely don't think I failed to recognise your friend, did you? Now, shall I do you a good turn?"
"By all means," I replied. "I'd do you one if I could."
"Well, then, take this on board with you, and think it over at your leisure. The day the parson left us he came to me alone in my room yonder and offered me——"
"Offered you what?" I said, forgetting that I might be overheard.
"One of the finest black pearls I ever saw or heard of," he answered. "He wanted me to buy it, but I refused, so he had to take it away with him to his poor wife in Sydney. There, what do you think of that?"
"Thank you, John," I said, warmly shaking him by the hand. "You've told me just what I wanted to know. Good-bye."