"You went ashore to a grave about a hundred yards inland, under a tope of trees, and alongside a high bank, to look for a locket round a dead man's neck?"
The excitement was growing intense. Hardly able to trust myself to speak, I fell back on nodding.
"Then you opened the grave and discovered a coffin?"
"Nothing more nor less than a sheet of lead."
"Ho, ho! I can imagine their disappointment. And then the Albino put in an appearance?"
"At his suggestion you set sail for Batavia?"
"Yes; but why Batavia? Only tell me that, and I'll say you've got the tow-rope of the whole mystery."
"Why, to me it's the simplest part of it. Look here, can't you see this? The woman, for some reason, had staked all she'd got on finding that locket buried with the dead man. That's it, isn't it? Well, the Albino was a stranger on Thursday, and was not known to do any work. That being so, why was he there? People don't live on Thursday for pleasure, or the good of their healths, I reckon?"
I made a negative sign, and he continued--
"Why, you chuckle-head, can't you see he was there because he was watching some one? I leave it to you to figure out who that some one was."
"You suppose! Of course it was. Well, she tells you she wants money to reach a certain island for a certain purpose. You carry the news on to him. That's his dart exactly. That's just what he wanted to know. He wants that locket too. But he can only get it through her. So, under a cloak of friendship he lends you the amount to get the boat, and then clears for his natural life to the island to be ready for you."
"Yes, your theory's very pretty, but here's the corker. How did he find out the island's name? He didn't get it from me, because I didn't know it till we sailed. Somehow, that don't seem to tally."
"Why, you galoot, don't you think, long before that, he had found out where the schooner that brought the woman and her husband from Tahiti touched before reaching Thursday--where, in fact, they buried the man he wanted to catch. You bet he did."
"Perhaps not; but I did. He sets off, as I say, reaches the island, watches to see where the grave is, and what success she meets with when she opens it; and then, when he finds out how he's been tricked, saddles himself upon you in order to watch the woman further. She faints directly she sees him, proving as clear as daylight that not only has she met him before, but that she has good cause to be frightened of him. By Jove! I can imagine the shock to their systems when they discovered that the man whom they both believed to be dead was in reality alive--that he'd hoodwinked them after all."