“Very well,” he said. “Follow me.”
They went a few rods away.
“Now,” he said, “speak.”
“What I have to say,” Tom begun, “is about those bonds.”
“You wish to plead for your friend?” interrupted the captain. “If that is all, I will tell you to begin with, that it is of no use. I shall not give them up.”
“You have made a mistake,” said Tom quietly. “In the first place, that man is not my friend.”
“You were traveling together.”
“That is true, but I only met him in San Francisco. I was following him to find out the very thing you helped me to discover to-day.”
“What is that?”
“Whether he had those papers.”