St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1895-09-21
CHAPTER xI.
THE GREAT Agra TREASURE.

CHAPTER xI. g
THE GREAT AGRA TREASURE.
Our captive sat in the cabin opposite
to the iron box which he had done SO
much and waited SO long to gain. He
was sunburned, reckless-eyed fellow,
with a network of lines and wrinkles
all over his mahogany features, which
/ told of hard, open-air life. There
was a. singular prominence about his
bearded chin which marked a man
who was not to be easily turned from
his purpose. His age may have been
fifty or Whereabouts, for his black,
cnrly hair was thiclly shot with gray
His face In rapose was not an ur1-
pleasing one, though his heavy brows
and aggressive chin gave him, as had
lately seen, a terrible expression when
moved to anger. He sat now with his
handcuffed hands upon his lap and his
head sunk upon his breast, while, he
looked with bis keen, twinkling eyes
at the box which had been the cause
of his ill-doings. It seemed to me that
there was more sorrow than anger in
his rigid and contained eouDtenance.
Once he looked up at me with a CLEAN
Of something like humor in his eyes.
"Well, Jonathan Small, said Holmes,
lighting a, cigar, II am sorry that it
has come to this
"And so am /, }" he answered, frankly.
SCI don't believe that ] can swing over
the job. j give you my word on the
book that never raised my hand
against Mr.. Sholto. 1t was that little
hell-hound Tonga who shot one of his
cursed darts into him. had no part
in it, sir. j was as grfevcd as Il it had
been my blood-relation. welted the
little devil with the slack end Of the
rope for it, but twas done, and lcould
not undo tgagainsa sSFxeg 81
"Haye a cigar,'' said Holmes; s'and
you had best take a pull out of my flask,
for you are very wet How could you
expect so small and weak man as this
black fellow to overpower Mr.. Sholto
and hold him while you were climbing
the rope?
"You seem to know as much about 1t
| as Ii Won were there, sir. The truth Is
that / hoped to find the room clear.
knew the habits of the house pretty
well, and it was the time when Mr.
sholto usually went down to his sup
per. shall make no secret of the
business. The best defense that can
make is just the simple truth. Now, If
| it had been the old major would have.
swung for him with light heart.
would have thought no more of knit
| ing him than of smoking this cigar.
| But it's cursed hard that I should be
Jagged over this young Sholto, with
| whom 7 had no quarrel whatever"
"You are under the charge OF Mr..
Athelney Jones, of Scotland Yard. He
is going to bring you up to my rooms,
and shall ask you for true account
Of the matter. You must make q clean
| breast of it, for If you do hope that I
| may be Of use to you. / think I can
prove that the poison acts so quickly
| that the man was dead before ever you
reached the room.
sThat he was, sir. never got such
| a turn in my life as when saw him
grinning at me with his head on his
shoulder as Iclimhed through the win
dow. It fairly shook n e, sir. I'd have
half killed Tonga for it If he had not
scrambled off That was how he
came to leave his club, and some
of his darts, too, as he tells me,
which I dare say helped to. put
you on our track; though how
you kept on it is more than can tell.
| / don't feel no malice against you for
it. But 1t does seem queer thing
he added, with a bitter smile, s'that I,
who have fair claim to nigh upon.
half million Of haoney should spend
the first half Of my life building a
breakwater in the Andamans, and am
/ like to spend the other half diggin,,
| drains at Dartmoor. It was an evil
day for me when first clapped eyes
/ upon the merchant Achmet and had to
do with the Agra treasure, which never
brought anything but curse yet upon
the man who owned it. To him it
brought murder, to Maj. Sholto it
brought fear and guilt, to me 1t has
meant slavery for ife.'
AT this moment Athelney Jones
thrust his broad face and heavy shout
ders into the tiny cabin. aQuite a fam-
lily party, he remarked II think /
/ shall have pull at that flask. Holmes.
i Well, I think we may all congratulate
/ each other Pity we didn't take the
other alive; but there was no choice.
I say, Holmes, you must confess that you
cut 1t rather fine. Itwas all that we
4 could do TO overhaul her.
i s'All is well that ends well. said
i Holmes .sBut certainly did not
know that the Aurora was such a
I clipper
fssmith says that she is one of the
/ fastest launches on the river, and that
1 il he had had another man TO help him
i with the engines we should never have
i caught her. He swears he knows moth
I ing Of this Norwood business.
] Neither he did, !" cried our prisoner