"Don't be alarmed."
"No, no!"
"I think we are both here for the same reason."
"You don't mean to say—"
"Yes; I have come here to earn the five thousand dollars, too,
Mr. Marson. We are rivals."
In his present frame of mind it seemed so simple and intelligible to Ashe that he wondered whether he was really hearing it the first time. He had an odd feeling that he had known this all along.
"You are here to get the scarab?"
"Exactly."
Ashe was dimly conscious of some objection to this, but at first it eluded him. Then he pinned it down.
"But you aren't a young man of good appearance," he said.