hands of Achmet he did it because he knew that he was a trusty man.
They are suspicious folk in the East, however: so what does this
rajah do but take a second even more trusty servant and set him to
play the spy upon the first? This second man was ordered never to let
Achmet out of his sight, and he followed him like his shadow. He went
after him that night and saw him pass through the doorway. Of course
he thought he had taken refuge in the fort, and applied for admission
there himself next day, but could find no trace of Achmet. This
seemed to him so strange that he spoke about it to a sergeant of
guides, who brought it to the ears of the commandant. A thorough
search was quickly made, and the body was discovered. Thus at the
very moment that we thought that all was safe we were all four seized
and brought to trial on a charge of murder,--three of us because we
had held the gate that night, and the fourth because he was known to
have been in the company of the murdered man. Not a word about the
jewels came out at the trial, for the rajah had been deposed and
driven out of India: so no one had any particular interest in them.
The murder, however, was clearly made out, and it was certain that we
must all have been concerned in it. The three Sikhs got penal
servitude for life, and I was condemned to death, though my sentence
was afterwards commuted into the same as the others.
"It was rather a queer position that we found ourselves in then.
There we were all four tied by the leg and with precious little
chance of ever getting out again, while we each held a secret which
might have put each of us in a palace if we could only have made use
of it. It was enough to make a man eat his heart out to have to stand
the kick and the cuff of every petty jack-in-office, to have rice to
eat and water to drink, when that gorgeous fortune was ready for him
outside, just waiting to be picked up. It might have driven me mad;
but I was always a pretty stubborn one, so I just held on and bided
my time.
"At last it seemed to me to have come. I was changed from Agra to
Madras, and from there to Blair Island in the Andamans. There are
very few white convicts at this settlement, and, as I had behaved
well from the first, I soon found myself a sort of privileged person.
I was given a hut in Hope Town, which is a small place on the slopes
of Mount Harriet, and I was left pretty much to myself. It is a
dreary, fever-stricken place, and all beyond our little clearings was
infested with wild cannibal natives, who were ready enough to blow a
poisoned dart at us if they saw a chance. There was digging, and
ditching, and yam-planting, and a dozen other things to be done, so
we were busy enough all day; though in the evening we had a little
time to ourselves. Among other things, I learned to dispense drugs
for the surgeon, and picked up a smattering of his knowledge. All the
time I was on the lookout for a chance of escape; but it is hundreds
of miles from any other land, and there is little or no wind in those
seas: so it was a terribly difficult job to get away.
"The surgeon, Dr. Somerton, was a fast, sporting young chap, and the
other young officers would meet in his rooms of an evening and play
cards. The surgery, where I used to make up my drugs, was next to his
sitting-room, with a small window between us. Often, if I felt
lonesome, I used to turn out the lamp in the surgery, and then,
standing there, I could hear their talk and watch their play. I am
fond of a hand at cards myself, and it was almost as good as having
one to watch the others. There was Major Sholto, Captain Morstan, and
Lieutenant Bromley Brown, who were in command of the native troops,
and there was the surgeon himself, and two or three prison-officials,
crafty old hands who played a nice sly safe game. A very snug little
party they used to make.
"Well, there was one thing which very soon struck me, and that was
that the soldiers used always to lose and the civilians to win. Mind,
I don't say that there was anything unfair, but so it was. These
prison-chaps had done little else than play cards ever since they had
been at the Andamans, and they knew each other's game to a point,
while the others just played to pass the time and threw their cards
down anyhow. Night after night the soldiers got up poorer men, and
the poorer they got the more keen they were to play. Major Sholto was
the hardest hit. He used to pay in notes and gold at first, but soon
it came to notes of hand and for big sums. He sometimes would win for
a few deals, just to give him heart, and then the luck would set in
against him worse than ever. All day he would wander about as black
as thunder, and he took to drinking a deal more than was good for
him.
"One night he lost even more heavily than usual. I was sitting in my
hut when he and Captain Morstan came stumbling along on the way to
their quarters. They were bosom friends, those two, and never far
apart. The major was raving about his losses.
"'It's all up, Morstan,' he was saying, as they passed my hut. 'I
shall have to send in my papers. I am a ruined man.'
"'Nonsense, old chap!' said the other, slapping him upon the
shoulder. 'I've had a nasty facer myself, but--' That was all I could
hear, but it was enough to set me thinking.
A couple of days later Major Sholto was strolling on the beach: so I
took the chance of speaking to him.
"'I wish to have your advice, major,' said I.
"'Well, Small, what is it?' he asked, taking his cheroot from his
lips.
"'I wanted to ask you, sir,' said I, 'who is the proper person to
whom hidden treasure should be handed over. I know where half a
million worth lies, and, as I cannot use it myself, I thought perhaps
the best thing that I could do would be to hand it over to the proper
authorities, and then perhaps they would get my sentence shortened
for me.'
"'Half a million, Small?' he gasped, looking hard at me to see if I
was in earnest.
"'Quite that, sir,--in jewels and pearls. It lies there ready for
anyone. And the queer thing about it is that the real owner is
outlawed and cannot hold property, so that it belongs to the first
comer.'
"'To government, Small,' he stammered,--'to government.' But he said
it in a halting fashion, and I knew in my heart that I had got him.
"'You think, then, sir, that I should give the information to the
Governor-General?' said I, quietly.
"'Well, well, you must not do anything rash, or that you might
repent. Let me hear all about it, Small. Give me the facts.'
"I told him the whole story, with small changes so that he could not
identify the places. When I had finished he stood stock still and
full of thought. I could see by the twitch of his lip that there was
a struggle going on within him.
"'This is a very important matter, Small,' he said, at last. 'You
must not say a word to any one about it, and I shall see you again
soon.'
"Two nights later he and his friend Captain Morstan came to my hut in
the dead of the night with a lantern.
"'I want you just to let Captain Morstan hear that story from your
own lips, Small,' said he.
"I repeated it as I had told it before.
"'It rings true, eh?' said he. 'It's good enough to act upon?'
"Captain Morstan nodded.
"'Look here, Small,' said the major. 'We have been talking it over,
my friend here and I, and we have come to the conclusion that this
secret of yours is hardly a government matter, after all, but is a
private concern of your own, which of course you have the power of
disposing of as you think best. Now, the question is, what price
would you ask for it? We might be inclined to take it up, and at
least look into it, if we could agree as to terms.' He tried to speak
in a cool, careless way, but his eyes were shining with excitement
and greed.
"'Why, as to that, gentlemen,' I answered, trying also to be cool,
but feeling as excited as he did, 'there is only one bargain which a
man in my position can make. I shall want yo to help me to my
freedom, and to help my three companions to theirs. We shall then
take yo into partnership, and give you a fifth share to divide
between you.'
"'Hum!' said he. 'A fifth share! That is not very tempting.'
"'It would come to fifty thousand apiece,' said I.
"'But how can we gain your freedom? You know very well that you ask
an impossibility.'
"'Nothing of the sort,' I answered. 'I have thought it all out to the
last detail. The only bar to our escape is that we can get no boat
fit for the voyage, and no provisions to last us for so long a time.
There are plenty of little yachts and yawls at Calcutta or Madras
which would serve our turn well. Do you bring one over. We shall
engage to get aboard her by night, and if you will drop us on any
part of the Indian coast you will have done your part of the
bargain.'
"'If there were only one,' he said.
"'None or all,' I answered. 'We have sworn it. The four of us must
always act together.'
"'You see, Morstan,' said he, 'Small is a man of his word. He does
not flinch from his friend. I think we may very well trust him.'
"'It's a dirty business,' the other answered. 'Yet, as you say, the
money would save our commissions handsomely.'
"'Well, Small,' said the major, 'we must, I suppose, try and meet
you. We must first, of course, test the truth of your story. Tell me
where the box is hid, and I shall get leave of absence and go back to
India in the monthly relief-boat to inquire into the affair.'
"'Not so fast,' said I, growing colder as he got hot. 'I must have
the consent of my three comrades. I tell you that it is four or none
with us.'
"'Nonsense!' he broke in. 'What have three black fellows to do with
our agreement?'
"'Black or blue,' said I, 'they are in with me, and we all go
together.'
"Well, the matter ended by a second meeting, at which Mahomet Singh,
Abdullah Khan, and Dost Akbar were all present. We talked the matter
over again, and at last we came to an arrangement. We were to provide
both the officers with charts of the part of the Agra fort and mark
the place in the wall where the treasure was hid. Major Sholto was to
go to India to test our story. If he found the box he was to leave it
there, to send out a small yacht provisioned for a voyage, which was
to lie off Rutland Island, and to which we were to make our way, and
finally to return to his duties. Captain Morstan was then to apply
for leave of absence, to meet us at Agra, and there we were to have a
final division of the treasure, he taking the major's share as well
as his own. All this we sealed by the most solemn oaths that the mind
could think or the lips utter. I sat up all night with paper and ink,
and by the morning I had the two charts all ready, signed with the
sign of four,--that is, of Abdullah, Akbar, Mahomet, and myself.
"Well, gentlemen, I weary you with my long story, and I know that my
friend Mr. Jones is impatient to get me safely stowed in chokey. I'll
make it as short as I can. The villain Sholto went off to India, but
he never came back again. Captain Morstan showed me his name among a
list of passengers in one of the mail-boats very shortly afterwards.
His uncle had died, leaving him a fortune, and he had left the army,
yet he could stoop to treat five men as he had treated us. Morstan
went over to Agra shortly afterwards, and found, as we expected, that
the treasure was indeed gone. The scoundrel had stolen it all,
without carrying out one of the conditions on which we had sold him
the secret. From that day I lived only for vengeance. I thought of it
by day and I nursed it by night. It became an overpowering, absorbing
passion with me. I cared nothing for the law,--nothing for the
gallows. To escape, to track down Sholto, to have my hand upon his
throat,--that was my one thought. Even the Agra treasure had come to
be a smaller thing in my mind than the slaying of Sholto.
"Well, I have set my mind on many things in this life, and never one
which I did not carry out. But it was weary years before my time
came. I have told you that I had picked up something of medicine. One
day when Dr. Somerton was down with a fever a little Andaman Islander
was picked up by a convict-gang in the woods. He was sick to death,
and had gone to a lonely place to die. I took him in hand, though he
was as venomous as a young snake, and after a couple of months I got
him all right and able to walk. He took a kind of fancy to me then,
and would hardly go back to his woods, but was always hanging about
