“Yes. You may regard it as a gift from Clay.”
“Who knows anything about the matter besides yourself?”
“My two partners, and a storekeeper who financed us, and his wife. They’re to be trusted. I’ll answer for them.”
“Well,” said Osborne quietly, “you’ll allow me to remark that you and your friends seem to have acted in a very honorable manner. That Clay should send me the case was, in a sense, characteristic of him; but I had no claim on you. If you won’t resent it, I should like to thank you for the line you have taken.”
“I haven’t finished my errand yet. You probably know that we salved a quantity of the gold, but you cannot have heard that we recovered and have accounted for every package that was insured.”
Osborne looked puzzled. He indicated the box on the table.
“You mean counting this one?”
“No; we found a duplicate, containing gold of rather more than the declared weight, on which the underwriters have paid our salvage claim.”
Osborne started, and his face expressed blank astonishment.
“But it sounds impossible! I can’t understand—”