“In that far corner,” said the crime specialist, “there is a heavy flag, set in the floor. Very recently, so I noted to-day, some one has scraped away the cement at its edges. There has been an effort to raise it, but the attempt has failed because of a lack of tools.”
“I’ve got it,” said Bat. “When you walked me up along the river this afternoon, that place where you left me to go poking among the tangled old vine was the place where you discovered the boat. And you saw tools in it; and that’s what told you they were coming to-night.”
“Well done,” laughed-the detective. “Very well done indeed!”
Then Campe, who had patiently kept himself from asking questions, seemed unable to contain himself any longer. One query followed another in rapid succession, and in a few moments Ashton-Kirk found himself deep in statements and explanations. The torch had been snapped off; they stood in the darkness of the vaults, talking in low tones.
And when everything had been told him, the young man was silent for a space. Then he said:
“The way you have gone about this is quite wonderful—I would not have believed that such a meagre array of detached facts could be so pieced together, and made into a whole so direct and significant. But even now I do not understand how you made up your mind as to the nature of the thing these men seek.”
“When I read Fuller’s statement, contained in his report, that the former head of the Guatemala police was now that country’s representative at Washington, I wired at once asking information as to the man Evans and the nature of his offences in Guatemala. The telegram I received this morning,” to Scanlon, “was in answer to that, and it said——”
Here the voice died away; there was silence for a moment.
“Well,” asked Scanlon, “what did it——”
“Hush!”