He was fully six feet tall and splendidly formed. His dirty white burnous was wrapped around him in a way to emphasize the dignity of his pose, and his handsome countenance was calm and impassive. From beneath the ample folds of a black and yellow turban two wide dark eyes were set on a point of vision across the bay, and following his gaze I saw that it was directed toward the Seagull lying at her anchorage. These eyes, accustomed to the distances of the desert, might be stronger than my own, yet I myself found that I could discern dark forms moving about upon our deck, and one in especial—was it the Professor?—was leaning quietly over the side nearest the quay.
The Arab did not notice Archie or me, so I had a chance to examine him critically. He was not old—perhaps thirty-five—and his unshaven face was a light tan in color. As we rowed out to the ship his eyes at last fell upon us, and I thought that he watched us intently until we were well aboard. From the deck I could still see his stalwart, motionless figure standing erect in the same position; and perhaps the Professor saw him, too, for he came toward me with an uneasy expression upon his face and requested another interview with my father, Uncle Naboth, and myself.
I summoned Ned Britton, Archie, and Joe, as well, and presently we all assembled in my father’s cabin.
“I have been thinking over this proposal,” began Van Dorn, “and have concluded that my first offer was not liberal enough, in the circumstances. To be frank with you,” his little, ferret eyes were anything but frank, just then, “the treasure is useless to me without your assistance in obtaining and transporting it to a place of safety. So I am willing to meet your views in the matter of a division of the spoils.”
We regarded him silently, and after a moment he added: “What do you think would be just, or satisfactory?”
My uncle answered. He was an experienced trader.
“According to your own story, sir,” said he, “you are not the original discoverer of this treasure. Professor Lovelace worked several years in tracing it, and finally succeeded because he had found an obscure diagram engraved on the ruined walls of a temple. He hired you to assist him. Tell us, then, what share of the plunder did he promise you?”
The Professor hesitated, but thinking to deceive us, though his manner assured us he was lying, he said boldly:
“I was to have one-half. But of course after Lovelace was murdered the whole belonged to me.”
“Was there any compact to that effect?” I asked.