"Yes, your theory's very pretty, but here's the corker. How did he find out the island's name? He didn't get it from me, because I didn't know it till we sailed. Somehow, that don't seem to tally."
"Why, you galoot, don't you think, long before that, he had found out where the schooner that brought the woman and her husband from Tahiti touched before reaching Thursday—where, in fact, they buried the man he wanted to catch. You bet he did."
"I never thought of that."
"Perhaps not; but I did. He sets off, as I say, reaches the island, watches to see where the grave is, and what success she meets with when she opens it; and then, when he finds out how he's been tricked, saddles himself upon you in order to watch the woman further. She faints directly she sees him, proving as clear as daylight that not only has she met him before, but that she has good cause to be frightened of him. By Jove! I can imagine the shock to their systems when they discovered that the man whom they both believed to be dead was in reality alive—that he'd hoodwinked them after all."
He threw back his head and laughed.
"And what then?" I asked.
"Why, don't you see, the treasure they're after is slipping through their fingers. The man has six months start of them. Directly they arrive in Batavia, the Albino sends a cablegram to England. He receives a reply. What was it?"
"'Still unclaimed. Come at once. Don't delay,'" I answered, reciting the words on the form I had picked up in the verandah of the Hôtel des Indes.
"And what significance has that for you?"
"I can't say, unless it affects the treasure."