"You've drawn your bead on the bull's-eye this time, sure enough. That's exactly what it does affect. It affects it like grim death. Don't you see—the other man hasn't got home yet. So they've still a chance for the money. Now they know they've just got to get up and clear for all they're worth to London. What then?"
"It's no use; I'm done for, clean stumped! After that, I can't make head or tail of it."
"Why, they argue in this way. They can't take the woman's lover with them, can they? He'd not only be in the way, but he'd probably want to go shares in the boodle. The woman is too suspicious to let the Albino go alone, so, as the man has served his purpose, he must be got rid of. But how? 'Ah!' says the Albino, 'I've got it! The murder of the Kanaka; that'll fit him like a glove!' Therefore this charge was trumped up to detain you here. D'you know. I should be more than a little surprised if they are not already gone."
"In that case, what will become of me?"
"That remains to be seen. I fancy to-morrow will set it right. But I suppose you understand now how you've been bilked?"
"Worse luck! But there's one thing puzzles me more than all the rest, and that is, how the deuce you come to know all this so accurately."
"My boy, if I gave you a hundred guesses you'd never hit it."
"Well then, I give it up, first time."
"And yet, I reckon, it's as clear as daylight. Who should you call the most important person in the whole affair?"
"Why, the chap who caused it all—the man who led them such a dance—the man who died."