"I should think not. On the other hand, he sternly forbade my even letting her know of his existence."
"Ah! that throws another light upon affairs. They were playing lone hands after all. He's just 'Old Nick' himself, is John Macklin, and she's pretty near as bad. Now, when you left Thursday Island, am I right in surmising that you steered a straight course for the Banks Group?"
"I don't know how you guessed it, but we did."
"And you brought up off Vanua Lava, maybe?"
"That's so. You've hit it again."
"You went ashore to a grave about a hundred yards inland, under a tope of trees, and alongside a high bank, to look for a locket round a dead man's neck?"
The excitement was growing intense. Hardly able to trust myself to speak, I fell back on nodding.
"Then you opened the grave and discovered a coffin?"
"Yes."
"And you found in it?"