“I see it now,” said Martin. “You sold your jewels from time to time to Slocum, and he knew how valuable they were, though I don’t suppose he paid you anything like what they were worth. And then he had planned to rob Mr. Greatorex, and being greedy, wanted the rest of your jewels as well. That explains the attacks on your room.”
Mounseer assented, adding that he had of course never suspected Mr. Slocum of any part in those attacks. Determined to protect his property, he had removed a length of the wainscoting of the wall of his room, and hidden the casket in the cavity behind. When his room was ransacked, this hiding-place remained undiscovered. He had only just removed the casket when he was overcome by the smoke.
“And it is to you, my friend,” he said, turning to Martin, “that I owe that I have still the means to live; and when I die, if any of my jewels are left, they shall be to you: I will so ordain it in my testament.”
“That’s handsome said,” cried Dick Gollop.
“But I hope there will be none left,” said Martin, flushing.
“Meaning that you’ll live as long as Methusalem, Mounseer,” said Susan. “And we all agree: of that I’m very sure.”
“I do not covet so long a life,” said Mounseer, “but it must be as the good God pleases.”
“Ay, and what you can’t help, make the best of,” said Gollop. “That Slocum and his crowd, now—their course is set for the gallows, and I hope as they’ll put a cheerful face on it. Nothing upsets me more than to see a man draw down his chops when he’s on his way to be hanged. He can’t get out of it, so his looks might just as well be sweet as sour.”
Next day, when Mr. Greatorex paid his promised visit to the farm, he brought some interesting news. The man who called himself Seymour, but whose real name was Smith, had purchased his freedom by volunteering to turn King’s evidence, and had already made a long statement. It appeared that the man whom Martin had called Blackbeard was a brother of Slocum, and had spent a good many years in piracy on the eastern seas. He had captured Captain Leake’s vessel the Merry Maid, made some few alterations in her cut—not skilfully enough to deceive the sharp eyes of Dick Gollop—changed her name to the Santa Maria, and brought her into dock after a brush with the French. He himself pretended to be a foreigner and had assumed a foreign accent at times.
Meeting his brother after many years’ absence, he had suggested that the most valuable articles in Mr. Greatorex’s stock of plate and jewellery should be gradually transferred to his vessel, carried to Portugal and sold. Seymour had been admitted as a partner, and had taken a lodging in the same house as the Frenchman, partly because his room would be convenient as a temporary storing place, and partly that he might assist in the robbery of Mounseer’s valuables. The outbreak of the Fire had enabled Slocum to carry off the whole of the stock openly.