“I remember! I remember!”
“What do you remember?” inquired Mrs. Hobbs, coming in hurriedly from the kitchen.
“I remember where I have seen this Huey Gosper before! He is the man I saw on the night of the murder, chased in the scrub, and followed down Lavender Bay steps to the boat! That’s the man! I will swear to him!”
“Will you arrest him?”
“I will apply for a warrant to-morrow! There is no hurry. He thinks himself quite safe!”
CHAPTER XXX
THE ‘SOUTHERN CROSS’
When Soft Sam left him in Hyde Park, Huey Gosper stood for a time stock still, as still and moveless as the monument of Captain Cook close at hand.
What should he do? Give up all, and fly like a child in a moment of panic? Was it not the action of a fool? And his plans so well laid, too! He was certain nothing could be traced to him. Had he not worked a lone hand—no accomplice to split on him? No; he would stop and brave it out. And then he should lose Bertha! Was life worth having without her after he had risked so much for her sake? Yes, he would stop.
But then, again, Soft Sam had always been right—right even when he (Huey) had felt most confident. Was he not right over the Sydney Cup? Had he not said that of The Vengeance and Bertha, Bertha was a trifle the better horse? And had not Sam made Alec’s fortune for him, and would he not have made one equally as good for himself—he, Huey Gosper, if he had only followed the old man’s advice?
And now it was no question of money. It was liberty, life, that was at stake, and Soft Sam said go. Clearly the old man knew all; what was there he did not know? And perhaps he knew that others knew, or suspected, and so his warnings. It was good of the old chap, but just like him. Yes, he had better go. When the old man gave the word it was no time to linger. He had said “At once.” He would stand not on the order of his going, but go.