“She carried four heavy men’s weight in gold.”
“When on earth did they get it aboard?”
“In provision boxes at the last; but they had been filling the boxes for weeks.”
“Why, I saw them doing it!” I cried. “But what about the gig? Who picked you up?”
She was watching that open door once more, and she answered with notable indifference, “Mr. Rattray.”
“So that’s the connection!” said I; and I think its very simplicity was what surprised me most.
“Yes; he was waiting for us at Ascension.”
“Then it was all arranged?”
my word, I almost forgot I was in the wilderness!”
“So you’re quite alone, are you?”
“Yes; as much so as that other beggar who was monarch of all he surveyed, his right there was none to dispute, from the what-is-it down to the glade -”
“I’ll come,” said I, as we reached the cottage. “Only first you must let me make myself decent.”