“I sent you the chart in the keg, but I have learned that the young fellow Jim had a copy of it, which he carries always in a water proof paper in his pocket.”
The listener did not move. He was as securely hidden as if by a prearranged plan. He had not been observed, and while he did not see the speakers he knew that those to whom the steward was talking must be of the rival ship’s crew, probably it was the leader himself who was present here, and possibly the mate, for he could tell from the voices there were two of the desperadoes.
“Why have you not secured the copy and destroyed it?” came the inquiry.
“I cannot do it. The fellow suspected me. Besides he is a terror, and I dare not.”
“Dare not! What would your life be worth if I told the authorities at home what I know about you?”
There was something said by the other man which Juarez could not hear, but he caught the word captain.
“Dash it, man!” said the one addressed. “I believe you are right!”
Then it was the steward who spoke. “I only know,” he said, “that I got the chart out of the secret hiding place into which it was put. I cannot say if it is the original, the right chart.”
“Then it is the papers which that fellow you speak of has now that we must have. There is something wrong about the chart we have been working with. We were evidently on the wrong island entirely. Things did not figure out right.”