“None! none!” wailed the wretch abjectly. “I’d give ’em all to you, Captain Stetson, if you’d save my life. But they are not mine to give. I am simply an agent for others.”
“A gem smuggler, in fact?” demanded Ralph sternly.
“Yes; that’s what you might call it. Oh, captain, I have led a bad life! I’d like to repent before I die.”
“You are in the employ of several men engaged in the business of evading duties on precious stones?” remorselessly pursued Ralph.
“Yes, sir. Oh! but I repent all my wickedness now. I’d give all these gems for even ten minutes of life. I——”
He broke off. An appalling flash of lightning pierced the sky, followed by a peal of thunder that rent the heavens. Even Ralph quailed before such a terrific upheaval of the elements. As for La Rue, he sank to his knees on the bridge.
“The gems! the gems for my life!” he implored, his eyes raised skyward.
He was still in the midst of a half-insane tirade, when the River Swallow struck with a quivering shock.
“It is the end!” screamed out La Rue, his voice ringing above the uproar of the storm.
Before Ralph could stop him, he had rushed to the side of the bridge; and then, with a wild cry, he plunged straight overboard into the boiling, angry waters that swept alongside.