ou never ask him to read a
letter or anything of that kind, and not notice (now that you are
reminded of it) that he somehow or other evaded doing so?"

"No, no---- By Jove, yes, I did though. I asked him to play cards, and
he wouldn't from conscientious motives or some rot of that kind."

"There you are, then."

"Right. Of course he couldn't see the pips. And this was the man I
thought I was having on for a Juggins. And this is the man who has got
the Recipe for Diamonds locked up in a photographic double dark-back.
That is, unless he's taken it out and got it developed."

"So far as I can make out," said the anarchist, "the negative is still
undeveloped. Pether took it to Palma, and he has it there now, not
daring to trust it in a photographer's hands, and not being able to
develop it himself. Senores, I believe it will be for us to unlock that
tremendous mine of potential energy. Mallorca, I regret to say, is too
strictly Catholic to be a profitable sowing ground for our propaganda,
but we have scattered adherents here, and these are working their best
for us. But our presence in that island is imperatively demanded.
Unfortunately, the next steamer does not sail for two days."

"Then we'll take the cutter," said Haigh. "Wind's in the sou'-sou'-east
and lightish, but if it holds as it is we should make Alcudia Bay by
early to-morrow morning, and from there could hit off the railway at La
Puebla and get to Palma."

And to this Taltavull and I agreed.

CHAPTER XIII.

AT A MALLORQUIN FONDA.

Our preparations for that short sea trip were few and simple. Taltavull
exchanged three small diamonds for cash, which enabled us to settle
outstanding accounts; Haigh procured a basket of bread, hard-boiled
eggs, and vermouth bottles; I made two or three chandlery purchases,
and gave the rigging a bit of an overhaul. It was in the gloaming when
we got the anchor, and night when we stood out between the dismantled
old fort and the obsolete new one at the harbour's mouth, and got into
open water.

Wind was fresh at first, and the ugly cutter's stem hissed through the
water like red-hot iron; but as the moon rose into a steel-blue sky
amongst bright white stars, the breeze dropped till it scarcely gave us
steerage-way. Haigh sat smoking at the tiller throughout the night;
Taltavull and I patrolled the narrow decks, chatting. We none of us
felt inclined for sleep.

Dawn came with a flash of vivid green, the sulphur