Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1895-04-18
CHAPTER XL

y
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 a sunburned, reckless-eyed fellow,
with q network of lines and wrinkles
all over his mahogany features, which
told of q hard, open-sir 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 thereabouts, for his black,
curly hair was thickly shot with gray.
His face in repose was not an un-
pleasing one, though his heavy brows
and aggressive chin gave him, as had
lately seen, 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 his keen, twinkling eyes
at the box which had been the cause
of his ill-doings. 1t seemed to me that
there was more sorrow than anger in
his rigid and contained countenance.
Once he looked up at me with a gleam
of something like humor in his eyes
"Well, Jonathan Small" said Holmes,
lighting a cigar, 81 am sorry that II
has come to this"
"And SO am l." he answered, frankly.
81 don't believe that can swing over
the job. ] give you my word on the
book that | never raised my hand
against Mr.. Sholto. II was that little
hell-hound Tonga who shot one of his
cursed darts into him. l had no part
in it, sir. I was as Rrievcd as II II had
been my blood-relation. ! welted the
little devil with the slack end of the
rope for it, but II was done, and could
not undo it again"
Have a cigar" said Holmes; land
you had best take n 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 it
as If you were there, sir. The truth is
that / hoped to find the room clear.
I 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, IL
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 should be
Ii II .x~sA l.
whom 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 clean
breast OF IT, for II you do hope that
may be of use to you think can
prove that the poison acts so quickly
that the man was dead before ever you
reached the room"
"That he was, sir. never got such
turn in my life rs when ! saw him
grinning at me with his head on his
shoulder as climbed through the win
dow. II fairly shook ne, sir. I'd have
half killed Tonga for 1t II he had not
scrambled off. That was how he
came to leave his club, and some
of his darts, too, rs he tells me,
which dare say helped to put
you on our track; though how
you kept on IL IL more than can tell.
I don't feel no malice against you for
IL. But 1t does seem queer thing"
he added, with bitter smile, that /,
who have fair claim to nigh upon
half million of money should spend
the first half of my life building o
breakwater In the Andnmans, and am
like to spend the other half diggin'
drains at Dartmoor. IL was IN 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 IL. To him IL
brought murder, to Maj Sholto 1t
brought fear and guilt, to me 1t has
meant slavery for life"
Al this moment Athelney Jones
thrust his broad face and heavy shout
ders into the tiny cabin. Quite fam