“It’s puzzling,” Jimmy agreed. “There’s obviously a mystery; but, after talking the thing over, my partners and I decided that we wouldn’t try to unravel it.”
“Perhaps you are wise. You are certainly considerate. But, still, I don’t see—Did you find the thing in the strong-room?”
“Not in the room. Clay showed me where to cut a hole in the roof. He crawled through and brought out the box. I imagine it was hidden among the deckbeams, but we hadn’t time to examine the place.”
“Ah!” exclaimed Osborne; for a light dawned on him as he remembered his partner’s determined attempt to break through the cabin floor on the night of the wreck. “Perhaps you are right. So the insurance people paid your claim and asked no questions. Did they seem satisfied?”
“Yes. I think the matter’s closed.”
There was keen relief in Osborne’s face, and the slackness of his pose suggested the sudden relaxing of a heavy strain. He sat very still for a few moments and then got up.
“Mr. Farquhar,” he said, “you must guess the satisfaction with which I have heard your news. Indeed, I feel that I must think over it quietly. If you will excuse me for a while, Miss Dexter and my daughter will be glad to entertain you.”
“But I must get back as soon as possible,” Jimmy objected, feeling that to stay, as he longed to do, would be embarrassing both to himself and to his host.
“You can’t leave before to-morrow,” said Osborne, smiling. “There’s no night boat now, the launch is under repairs, and my car’s in town. I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with our hospitality.”
He rang the bell, and when Jimmy left him he sat down with knitted brows. He wondered where Clay had got the gold. Then suddenly his fist clenched tightly and his frown grew deeper: he remembered that somebody had worked out the alluvial mine before they reached it. There was cause for grave suspicion there, particularly as the case had been put on board secretly, without appearing on the ship’s papers, which would have brought it to Osborne’s knowledge.