“You haven’t found much as yet, have you? You’ve come this far with your plans, and here you’ve stuck. Find the money, why don’t you? What’s the use of getting rid of Bain before you get the money that’s hidden?”
“He might find it first,” answered the big man.
Ann heard, but she was too astonished and excited to realize that the secrets of the wreck were being revealed to her at last. The great surprise that eclipsed all the others was the news that Warren Bain was a detective. Had he known everything from first to last?
But she must listen and learn all she could. This was no time to be wondering about things; what was Charlie saying? She had missed part of it already, but he ended with a sneering laugh, “And I noticed that you ran as fast as I, the minute you heard that noise last night, on the boat. You didn’t wait to see what made it, did you?”
In reply the big man muttered something that sounded to Ann like nothing but a savage roar.
“I tell you,” said Charlie, “it was that blamed figurehead. Him and the captain was friends; I seen them talking to each other on many an evening.”
“You did not! Maybe the cap’n talked but no wooden figure ever answered. Come along now, you coward. I’ll admit that Bain scared me off last night, but now I’m ready for him!”
“Bain!” echoed Charlie.
“It was, too, Bain. He was dragging something along the deck to make that ssush-ssush to scare us.”
“But it wasn’t Bain,” thought Ann, “because we were watching him.”