The merchant interrupted him.
“I don’t want to know anything about it,” he said. “I merely repeat my former advice, which is to get out of the country.”
Nick waited in vain for the sailor to go on. What words were on his tongue when so suddenly checked? He made general denial. Who, then, had murdered Alvin Maynard? Where were the diamonds?
Nick was listening to the voice of one of the men who had stolen the gems, yet he was no nearer a solution of the murder mystery than before. He believed what the man said regarding the murder. He had not even known of it until informed by the merchant. Even now he seemed to doubt the truth of the statement.
“I’ll land him in the Tombs when he leaves here,” thought Nick, “and we’ll see about the murder later. It is possible that, after all, he knows where the diamonds are, and yet, men of his character don’t usually hang about for a little money when in the possession of half a million in diamonds.”
But Nick’s plans were defeated by something which happened on the floor above. He heard a quick blow, a fall, and then the groans of a man in agony. As he was about to spring up the stairs and through the door at the top, the sound of another voice came to his ears:
“How was that for a knockout?”
It was the coarse voice of a bully.
“Very well done,” replied the merchant. “Put him in the shaft with his mate.”