Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/55

 “Hello! Where are those people?” exclaimed the Doctor, as he came hurrying up a few minutes later on.

“Gone,” replied Maurice, “and it’s time we were going too. What in thunder made you run off the way you did?”

“Why, the old man said they had robbed him of all his money,” cried the Doctor. “Told me it was in a little canvas bag; the reason they were beating the girl was to make her confess where he had hidden the rest.”

“And you went to get it back?”

“Yes. I pitied them. Unfortunate wretches! Said he was a peddler from a country to the north of this. Why, he begged me, with tears in his eyes, to get back the money, saying that he was ruined, and all that sort of thing, and now he has gone and lit out without even waiting to see what success I met with. I say it begins to look as though I’d been played for a fool.”

“Did you get the money?” asked Maurice.

“Got nothing,” was the angry response. “Couldn’t come up with one of those fellows. The whole village is deserted now, except for the elephant and the pigs. Confound the luck! I wanted to see the head-man, as they call him, and make him tell us our way. There never were such precious cowards as these Siamese. I say, De Veber, where did you get the shawl?”

Explanations were evidently in order now all around, and the next five minutes were spent in making them.

I expected to learn something about the old man and his daughter, but was disappointed, for the Doctor had already told all he knew.

“What were those people, anyhow?” asked Maurice. “They looked too white to be Siamese, or Cambodians either, for that matter.”

“Certainly they were neither, though the old chap spoke Siamese well enough,” replied the Doctor. “I wish to goodness you fellows hadn’t let them off so easily. I’m puzzled to know why the man should have humbugged me about the money the way he did.”

“You don’t think he had lost any money then?” I asked.

“Why of course not. Do you suppose he would have trotted off if he had?”

“Probably not. Yet I can’t see his motive.”

“I rather suspect he thought we were French officers and might detain them both until the outrage could be