“I was looking for it at dinner the minute we cast off; and what a scrimmage there would have been at that table if you had drawn one of those pistols!  Why, Petrak and Buckrow and Long Jim were in the passage with pistols ready to come in, and I would have shot you first, and then Trego, for I knew Captain Riggs had no arms on his person.  If I made away with you and Trego the next would have been Rajah, for the lad could have given a nasty cut with that kris.  And I had to keep a close eye on Mr. Trego’s malacca cane.”

“Oh, you did!  I never suspected for a minute that you regarded Mr. Trego as a dangerous character.”

“He never told you?”

“Never told me anything.  I was introduced to him in a most casual way in the bank, and was surprised to find him a passenger in the Kut Sang”

“He never told you about his cane?  Most beautiful rapier you ever saw in it.  Always had it by him, but he overlooked it when he got up from the table in the saloon last evening.  Undoubtedly he was going for a pistol, but we had to get him when the time offered; and, besides, he was getting ready to tell Riggs all about me and my crew.  There wasn’t a second to lose.  I met him as he was coming back and held him for Petrak, and we did the job quietly.”

“It was something to be proud of,” I remarked.  “I never would have given the Rev. Luther Meeker credit for it.”

“That’s what made the character so valuable,” he grinned, feeling the bandage about his head tenderly.  I saw that he was weaker than he had led us to believe, and that he was suffering from his wound.

“But you puzzled me when they found the body.  I expected you to denounce me; but you foolishly kept in front of me, and I was ready to blow your back out if you said a word, and we were all ready for the finest kind of a fight, although I did not want to precipitate matters so soon.  Really, you had me guessing for a time, and I couldn’t understand your attitude, knowing what you did about me and the gold.  Then I saw that you had plans of your own, and wanted it yourself.”

“It is you who flatter me now,” I told him, surprised at his revelations.

“But you did want it, although I couldn’t see how you figured to take it away from me, or why you didn’t tell Captain Riggs what you knew.”

“But I didn’t know anything.  I thought you were a spy, who mistook me for one, and I was letting you have your little joke out.”

“You didn’t know about the gold, or Trego, or me?” he demanded.

“I regret exceedingly that I didn’t.  If I had I would have blocked your game at the first opportunity.  I suspected you were not a missionary, but I had never even heard of the Devil’s Admiral.”

“Most extraordinary.”

“I agree with you.”

“I mean that you didn’t know about the gold, when I thought you did.  I must confess that I made a tremendous mistake there.  Really, it came near being a failure—­it would have been if Captain Riggs had not been led to suspect you.  I advised him to put you in irons after you were sent to your room—­it seemed to be the easiest way to get you out of the fight.  I was really afraid of you, Mr. Trenholm.”