Page:The Sign of Four.pdf/273

264 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