Looking back upon his own eventful life since that meeting with St.Luc and Tandakora in the forest, he was better able to read motives and to understand men.

The reason why Adrian Van Zoon wished him to vanish must be money, because only money could be powerful enough to make such a man risk a terrible crime.

Well, he would have a great score to settle with Van Zoon.

He did not yet know just how he would settle it, but he did not doubt that the day of reckoning would come.
A cask of oil and several lanterns were among his treasures from the ship, and, making use of them, he frequently read late at night, often with the rain beating hard on walls and roof.

Then it seemed to him that his mind was clearest, and he resolved again and again that when he returned to his own he would make full use of what he learned on the island.