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IRECTLY they were alone the colonel's severe official manner changed. He rose and approached the doctor. His eyes shone with rapacity and hope; he became confidential. "The silver might have been indeed put on board the lighter, but it was not conceivable that it should have been taken out to sea." The doctor, watching every word, nodded slightly, smoking with apparent relish the cigar which Sotillo had offered him as a sign of his friendly intentions. His manner of cold detachment from the rest of the Europeans led Sotillo on till, from conjecture to conjecture, he arrived at hinting that in his opinion this was a put-up job on the part of Charles Gould in order to get hold of that immense treasure all to himself. The doctor, observant and self-possessed, muttered, "He is very capable of that."

Here Captain Mitchell exclaimed, with amazement, amusement, and indignation, "You said that of Charles Gould!" Disgust and even some suspicion crept into his tone, for to him, too, as to other Europeans, there appeared to be something dubious about the doctor's personality.

"What on earth made you say that to that watch-stealing scoundrel?" he asked. "What's the object of an infernal lie of that sort? That confounded pickpocket was quite capable of believing you."