“I did,” said Don.
“And you see this, don't you?” dangling the rosary before Don's eyes.
“I do; I'm not blind.”
“Then what the dickens more do you want?”
“The pearls,” said Don, laughing. “I'm convinced, old fellow, so no more palaver. Our business now is to run the shark-charmer down. What's the time?”
“Eleven o'clock to the minute.”
“And what start of us do you think he has got?”
“It was about nine when we caught him sneaking, and we turned in at ten.”
“And out again half an hour later. Then the locker must have been rifled between ten and halfpast. That would give him, say, forty-five minutes' start if we were on his track at this identical moment, which we——— What was that? I heard a noise overhead.”
“Some one at the skylight,” said Jack in a whisper. “S-s-sh! I'll slip on deck and see who it is.”