"Why not?" said he with a laugh. "Forewarned is forearmed. You're giving me valuable information."
"Very well, Mr. Baxter," I continued, determined to show him my cards. "There's a certain detective, one Scarterfield, a sharp man, who is very anxious to make your acquaintance. For if you want the plain truth, he believes you, or some of your accomplices, or you and they together, to have had a hand in the murders of Noah and Salter Quick. And he's on your track."
I was watching him still more closely as I spoke the last sentence or two. He remained as calm and cool as ever, and I was somewhat taken aback by the collected fashion in which he not only replied to my glance, but answered my words.
"Scarterfield—of whose doings I've heard a bit—has got hold of the wrong end of the stick there, Mr. Middlebrook," he said quietly. "I had no hand in murdering either Noah Quick or his brother Salter. Nor had my friend—the man who's just gone off with your telegram. I don't know who murdered those men. But I know that there have always been men who were ready to murder them if they got the chance, and I wasn't the least surprised to hear that they had been murdered. The wonder is that they escaped murder as long as they did! But beyond the fact that they were murdered, I know nothing—nor does anybody on board this craft. You and Miss Raven are amongst—well, you can call us pirates if you like, buccaneers, adventurers, anything!—but we're not murderers. We know nothing whatever about the murders of Noah and Salter Quick—except what we've read in the papers."
I believed him. And I made haste to say so—out of a sheer relief to know that Miss Raven was not amongst men whose hands were stained with blood.
"Thank you," he said, as coolly as ever. "I'm obliged to you. I've been anxious enough to know who did murder those two men. As I say, I felt no surprise when I heard of the murders."
"You knew them—the Quicks?" I suggested.
"Did I?" he answered with a cynical laugh. "Didn't I? They were a couple of rank bad 'uns! I have never professed sanctity, Mr. Middlebrook, but Noah and Salter Quick were of a brand that's far beyond me—they were bad men. I'll tell you more of 'em, later—here's Miss Raven."
"I may as well tell you," I murmured hastily, "that Miss Raven knows as much as I do about all that I've just told you."
"That so?" he said. "Um! And she looks a sensible sort of lass, too—well, I'll tell you both what I know—as I say, later. But now—some tea!"