"Not a few, I imagine, in the roadstead, but on the Elora I should say certainly not," replied the supercargo, in a low voice. "My position as chairman of the committee has naturally not contributed to popularity amongst the savages of these parts, and I could name at least five or six of the guano thieves who wish I'd never come to Ichaboe, and who certainly wouldn't be sorry to see the last of me."
"Particularly Captain Ivory, eh? From what I've been told he's the sort of man who would stick at nothing. But what I should like to know is this: What motive could he have for poisoning you, and, presuming that he's the instigator of this crime, who is his accomplice?"
"I DON'T MERELY SUSPECT IT, MY DEAR SIR—I KNOW IT."
"Poisoning me, doctor?" said the sick man in astonishment, raising himself on his elbow and gazing at Maxwell with something of the old fire in his eyes. "Do you really suspect that my illness is due to a criminal hand?"
"I don't merely suspect it, my dear sir—I know it. I suspected it when I first saw you, but I'm certain now. You've been systematically poisoned for several months past, and not solely by mercury and croton oil, but by Calabar bean as well. We may, a little later, if we can get hold of some of the poison, be able to prove our statement by analysis. Meanwhile, we know we've got hold of the truth, and what we've got to do is to find out the person or persons who have had a hand in this affair."
"Then you may make up your mind, doctor, that it's Jasper who's done it," affirmed Captain Graham, emphatically. "Poison's exactly the sort o' weapon he'd use, the double-faced, smooth-tongued villain that he is."
"I grant you, captain, that he's all that, and much more besides, perhaps. But before we fix this crime upon him we've to discover first what motive he could have in committing it; and, secondly, what means he adopted."
"Not much difficulty in assignin' a motive when we recall the ambuscade and its subsequent effects," returned Graham. "Twelve months' interdict against his name; checkmated aboard his own ship, if you please, and unable, ever since that day, to get the least sympathy from our gallant chairman here, though Jasper's friends tried their hardest in committee. But you'll have to hear the whole story, doctor, 'fore you can understand right, so by your leave and Mr. Lees' I'll spin you the yarn from the beginnin'."