,' the other answered. 'Yet, as you say, the
money would save our commissions handsomely.'

"'Well, Small,' said the major, 'we must, I suppose, try and meet you.
We must first, of course, test the truth of your story. Tell me where
the box is hid, and I shall get leave of absence and go back to India
in the monthly relief-boat to inquire into the affair.'

"'Not so fast,' said I, growing colder as he got hot. 'I must have the
consent of my three comrades. I tell you that it is four or none with
us.'

"'Nonsense!' he broke in. 'What have three black fellows to do with
our agreement?'

"'Black or blue,' said I, 'they are in with me, and we all go together.'

"Well, the matter ended by a second meeting, at which Mahomet Singh,
Abdullah Khan, and Dost Akbar were all present. We talked the matter
over again, and at last we came to an arrangement. We were to provide
both the officers with charts of the part of the Agra fort and mark the
place in the wall where the treasure was hid. Major Sholto was to go
to India to test our story. If he found the box he was to leave it
there, to send out a small yacht provisioned for a voyage, which was to
lie off Rutland Island, and to which we were to make our way, and
finally to return to his duties. Captain Morstan was then to apply for
leave of absence, to meet us at Agra, and there we were to have a final
division of the treasure, he taking the major's share as well as his
own. All this we sealed by the most solemn oaths that the mind could
think or the lips utter. I sat up all night with paper and ink, and by
the morning I had the two charts all ready, signed with the sign of
four,--that is, of Abdullah, Akbar, Mahomet, and myself.

"Well, gentlemen, I weary you with my long story, and I know that my
friend Mr. Jones is impatient to get me safely stowed in chokey. I'll
make it as short as I can. The villain Sholto went off to India, but
he never came back again. Captain Morstan showed me his name among a
list of passengers in one of the mail-boats very shortly afterwards.
His uncle had died, leaving him a fortune, and he had left the army,
yet he could stoop to treat five men as he had treated us. Morstan
went over to Agra shortly afterwards, and found, as we expected, that
the treasure was indeed gone. The scoundrel had stolen it all, without
carrying out one of the conditions on which we had sold him the secret.
From that day I lived only for vengeance. I tho