I don't feel no malice
against you for it. But it does seem a queer thing," he added,
with a bitter smile, "that I who have a fair claim to nigh upon
half a million of money should spend the first half of my life
building a breakwater in the Andamans, and am like to spend the
other half digging drains at Dartmoor. It was an evil day for me
when first I clapped eyes upon the merchant Achmet and had to do
with the Agra treasure, which never brought anything but a curse
yet upon the man who owned it. To him it brought murder, to
Major Sholto it brought fear and guilt, to me it has meant
slavery for life."
At this moment Athelney Jones thrust his broad face and heavy
shoulders into the tiny cabin. "Quite a family party," he
remarked. "I think I shall have a pull at that flask, Holmes.
Well, I think we may all congratulate each other. Pity we didn't
take the other alive; but there was no choice. I say, Holmes,
you must confess that you cut it rather fine. It was all we
could do to overhaul her."
"All is well that ends well," said Holmes. "But I certainly did
not know that the Aurora was such a clipper."
"Smith says she is one of the fastest launches on the river, and
that if he had had another man to help him with the engines we
should never have caught her.
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