arrest my closer attention.

"How do you know that the murderers didn't find what they were seeking
for?" he asked in a low, forceful voice. "Come, now!"

I stared at him; so, too, did Miss Raven. He laughed.

"That, certainly, doesn't seem to have struck anybody," he said. "I'm
sure, anyway, it hasn't struck you before. Does it now?"

"I'd never thought of it," I admitted.

"Exactly! Nor, according to the papers--and to my private
information--had anybody," he answered. "Yet--it would have been the
very first thought that would have occurred to me. I should have said
to myself, seeing the ripped-up clothing, 'Whoever murdered these men
was in search of something that one or other of the two had concealed
on him, and the probability is, he's got it.' Of course!"

"I'm sure nobody--police or detectives--ever did think of that," said
I. "But--perhaps with your knowledge of the Quicks' antecedents and
queer doings, you have some knowledge of what they might be likely to
carry about them?"

He laughed at that, and again leaned nearer to us.

"Aye, well!" he replied. "As I've told you so much, I'll tell you
something more. I do know of something that the two men had on them
when they were on that miserable island and that they, of course,
carried away with them when they escaped. Noah and Salter Quick were
then in possession of two magnificent rubies--worth no end of money!"

CHAPTER XXI

THE CHINESE GENTLEMAN

I could not repress an unconscious, involuntary start on hearing this
remarkable declaration; it seemed to open, as widely as suddenly, an
entirely new field of vision; it was as if some hand had abruptly torn
aside a veil and shown me something that I had never dreamed of. And
Baxter laughed, significantly.

"That strikes you, Middlebrook?" he said.

"Very forcibly, indeed!" said I. "If what you say is true--I mean, if
one of those two men had such valuables on him, then there's a reason
for the murder of both that none of us knew of. But--is it probable
that the Quicks would still be in possession of jewels that you saw
some years ago?"

"Not so many years ago, when all's said and done," he answered. "And
you couldn't dispose of things like those very readily, you know. You
can take it from me, knowing what I did of them, that neither Noah nor
Salter Quick would sell anything unless at its full value, or
something like it. They weren't hard up for money, either of them;
they could afford t