“I grabbed a pile of gold coin—about a thousand dollars——”
“Only a thousand dollars?” interrupted Leonard.
“That was all. I took the money, and also snatched a letter from his hand that he had just been writing. But it tore, leaving a portion of it in his grip. Just then Carlos Conrad came, seeming to think that something wrong was going on. He jumped in at the window, and I saw him take the fragment of the letter from the old man’s hand. Meanwhile I had read the part in my possession, and wanted the rest of it. Young Conrad and I had a tussle over the matter, and finally he slipped from me and ran. He outwitted me, for when I gave chase and supposed I had caught him, I found it was you”—pointing to Leonard—“instead. You know what followed. You were a prisoner in the cave, and before I fairly discovered that you were the wrong man, I let out enough to make you know that I was the murderer. Then you escaped. It was a night when we were running in goods. You will remember it was moonlight; and the goods were some we had intended to get in on the night of the murder, when it was dark and rainy, but the work was interrupted by my arrival with my prisoner, and had been postponed. It was contrary to our usual caution to work on a moonlight night, but the ship that brought the goods from Europe was ready and impatient to sail, as it wouldn’t do for her to be seen hanging about the coast too long. After you escaped I was afraid to remain at Rocky Beach any longer, and on that very night joined this ship.”
Snags paused again from weakness.
Waiting until the administrations of the surgeon revived him, Leonard said:
“But there are two unsettled points. First, we want to know who the man is whom you have designated as ‘Boss,’ and next we want the letter that Colonel Conrad wrote.
“The ‘boss?’ Well, for a long time I didn’t know himmyself. He came to Rocky Beach but seldom, and then in disguise. Most of the orders were given through Roake. He knew him. But I got the secret out of him. His name is Haywood. His home is in Dalton.”
“Very well,” said Mr. Stark; “and now about the letter.”
“Haywood has it.”
“Can you repeat its contents?”