"How much do you think these diamonds are worth?" he asked.
"A fortune, a king's ransom!"
"Gee! There must be a double handful of the sparks in the bag. Well, old fel, I'll be going. Hope you'll get well in short order."
"I know I will, now," answered Townsend, with a deep sigh of satisfaction. "I'll see you to-morrow, Matt?"
"Sure. Good night."
Dashington left the room and, as Cassidy came back, the front door was heard to open and close.
"I never thought Matt King could get himself up to look like that, cap'n," remarked the mate, as he took the chair by Townsend's bed.
"He's a clever boy," averred Townsend, "and as steady and reliable as a clock."
"He's about as different from what he usually is as any one could imagine," pursued Cassidy. "The way he acts and talks are both different. You're right, he's clever."
"I don't mind telling you now, Cassidy, something I've been keeping from you," said Townsend, after a brief pause. "You remember that iron chest that was hidden away in an island in the Bahamas, and how a fellow calling himself the Man from Cape Town gave me a chart and asked me to go after the chest, bring it to New Orleans and open it in the presence of a lady who lives in St. Charles Avenue?"