He has robbed us of all we hold valuable, and to his act of treachery we owe the mutilations we have suffered.

Can you wonder that we are anxious to find him ?" "I do not wonder at that at all," I said.

"My only feeling is that I must regard it as an entirely business matter." "We cannot blame you," Kitwater replied.

"Yet you must surely understand our anxiety for a definite and immediate answer.

The man has had a considerable start of us already, and he has doubtless disposed of the jewels ere this.