d, Holmes, the prisoner, and he, for they had
changed their plans so far as to report themselves at a station upon
the way. My companion lounged in his arm-chair with his usual listless
expression, while Small sat stolidly opposite to him with his wooden
leg cocked over his sound one. As I exhibited the empty box he leaned
back in his chair and laughed aloud.

"This is your doing, Small," said Athelney Jones, angrily.

"Yes, I have put it away where you shall never lay hand upon it," he
cried, exultantly. "It is my treasure; and if I can't have the loot
I'll take darned good care that no one else does. I tell you that no
living man has any right to it, unless it is three men who are in the
Andaman convict-barracks and myself. I know now that I cannot have the
use of it, and I know that they cannot. I have acted all through for
them as much as for myself. It's been the sign of four with us always.
Well I know that they would have had me do just what I have done, and
throw the treasure into the Thames rather than let it go to kith or kin
of Sholto or of Morstan. It was not to make them rich that we did for
Achmet. You'll find the treasure where the key is, and where little
Tonga is. When I saw that your launch must catch us, I put the loot
away in a safe place. There are no rupees for you this journey."

"You are deceiving us, Small," said Athelney Jones, sternly. "If you
had wished to throw the treasure into the Thames it would have been
easier for you to have thrown box and all."

"Easier for me to throw, and easier for you to recover," he answered,
with a shrewd, sidelong look. "The man that was clever enough to hunt
me down is clever enough to pick an iron box from the bottom of a
river. Now that they are scattered over five miles or so, it may be a
harder job. It went to my heart to do it, though. I was half mad when
you came up with us. However, there's no good grieving over it. I've
had ups in my life, and I've had downs, but I've learned not to cry
over spilled milk."

"This is a very serious matter, Small," said the detective. "If you
had helped justice, instead of thwarting it in this way, you would have
had a better chance at your trial."

"Justice!" snarled the ex-convict. "A pretty justice! Whose loot is
this, if it is not ours? Where is the justice that I should give it up
to those who have never earned it? Look how I have earned it! Twenty
long years in that fever-ridden swamp,