“Fine!” said Hugh.
Natachee continued:
“I not only saw their map, but, as it happens, there is a little place under the sill of that particular window where the adobe wall has crumbled away from the wood, and so I could hear what was said as clearly as if I had been sitting at the table with them.
“The Lizard told them all about the Indian who is commonly supposed to know the secret of the lost mine. Some of the things he said I rather think you would agree with. He also told them a good deal about you. He knows you only by the name of Hugh Edwards, but I must say that some of the things he reported were not what you might call complimentary.”
“I imagine not,” returned Hugh.
Again Natachee, for some time, seemed to be weighing some matter of greater moment than the things he had related; while the white man, seeing the Indian so absorbed in his own thoughts, waited in silence.
“There was something else that Sonora Jack and his companion talked about,” said Natachee, at last, “something that I cannot understand.”
Then looking straight into the white man’s eyes he asked slowly:
“Will you tell me all that you know about Miss Hillgrove and her two fathers?”
Hugh Edwards drew back and his face darkened. The Indian saw the effect of his words and raised his hand to check the white man’s angry reply.