With the courage of despair, Hobbs dived and dived again where Huey had disappeared. With the skill of a pearl diver he felt over the bottom, or as near the bottom as he could reach. Finally he came to the surface panting, waving his hand for help.
The boat came, and strong arms soon lifted on to the schooner’s deck the senseless form of Hubert Gosper. Striking a rock appeared to have stunned him, and a heavy belt of gold around his waist kept him from floating.
“Just my luck!” cried Hobbs, with a melancholy growl, as he shook the water off himself like a shaggy Newfoundland dog. “Just my luck!”
“But you’ve got him after all,” said his companion.
“Got him!” replied Hobbs sarcastically. “What’s the good of a dead criminal to a live policeman?”
* * * * *
The following day Bertha left Darlinghurst triumphantly on the arm of Professor Norris, who had come to meet her. The Crown abandoned her prosecution, and Soft Sam, having removed the embargo on his revelations, Bertha was free to relate those particulars of the crime that had so far remained a mystery.
“Soft Sam saw how it was done at once, Pro,” Bertha said. “After getting to the window and killing my husband in the way Hobbs suggested, he must have hooked Alec’s trousers off the chair where he had left them, taken the key out of the pocket, got an impression in wax, replaced the trousers, closed the window, gone home, filed out a duplicate key, and then robbed the office safe. Who would ever have thought it of him? He was passionate, I know, and dreadfully jealous. Do you remember the wonderful character you gave him, Pro, when you examined his head at Windsor?”
“And I stick to my character even now,” said the Professor. “A great criminal or a great man! What is the difference? The circumstances of his environment, an accident of life, a disappointed love, or a baulked ambition. We have all the potential power for the greatest good or the greatest evil if circumstances so will it, and the greater the brain the greater the power. The Demon of Avarice destroyed Hubert Gosper as surely as it is destroying thousands of hopeful lives every day. It first demoralized, then brutalized him. But he paid the penalty, as every one must inevitably pay.
“You cannot rob your brother of silver without at the same time robbing your own mind of gold. There is no usury like it. Thou shalt not steal from yourself your honour, your self-respect, your love of your fellow-man; for in that moment the light of true guidance shall go from you, and all shall be darkness.”