"So this is your gang, is it?" she went on. "It looks sober at
present! I suppose I must trust you to control them! I dare say even
tavern brawlers respect you sufficiently to keep a lady's secret if you
order them. I will hope they have manhood enough to hold their
tongues!"

Of course, dressed in the best that Zanzibar stores had to offer we
scarcely looked like fashion plates. My shirt was torn where Coutlass
had seized it to resist being thrown out, but I failed to see what she
hoped to gain by that tongue lashing, even supposing we had been the
lackeys she pretended to believe we were.

"The message is to my brother," she went on.

"I don't know him!" put in Monty promptly.

"You mean you don't like him! Your brother had him expelled from two
or three clubs, and you prefer not to meet him! Nevertheless, I give
you this message to take to him! Please tell him--you will find him at
his old address--that I, his sister, Lady Saffren Waldon, know now the
secret of Tippoo Tib's ivory. He is to join me here at once, and we
will get it, and sell it, and have money, and revenge! Will you tell
him that!"

"No!" answered Monty.

I looked at Yerkes, Yerkes looked at Fred, and Fred at me.

There was nothing to do but feel astonished.

"Why not, if you please?"

"I prefer not to meet Captain McCauley," said Monty.

"Then you will give the message to somebody else?" she insisted.

"No" said Monty. "I will carry no message for you."

"Why do you say that? How dare you say that? In front of your
following--your gang!"

I should have been inclined to continue the argument myself--to try to
find out what she did know, and to uncover her game. It was obvious
she must have some reason for her extraordinary request, and her more
extraordinary way of making it. But Monty saw fit to stride past her
through his open bedroom door, and shut it behind him firmly. We stood
looking at her and at one another stupidly until she turned her back
and went to her own room on the floor above. Then we followed Monty.

"Did she say anything else?" he asked as soon as we were inside. I
noticed he was sweating pretty freely now.

"Didums, you're too polite!" Fred answered. "You ought to have told
her to keep her tongue housed or be civil!"

"I don't hold with hitting back at a lone woman," said Yerkes, "but
what was she driving at? What did she mean by calling us a pack of
mongrels?"

"Merely her way," said Monty