Dora's a dear, of course. I'm sure you'll lose your heart to her at once. And I've already grown so fond of Mr. Marlin, and the more so, perhaps, because Dora is frightfully worried about him. I am afraid there is something very serious the matter with his mind, though a great deal of the time he appears to be quite normal. I don't understand it, of course, because it is all about the financial conditions in the world; but anyway--
Paul Cremarre stopped reading aloud abruptly. There was a moment of silence while his eyes swept swiftly on to the end of the paragraph.
"Well?" inquired Captain Francis Newcombe. "What's the matter? Have you lost your place?"
The Frenchman drew in his breath sharply.
"_Bon Dieu!_" he exclaimed excitedly. "Listen to this! It is the lamp of Aladdin! It is the Isle of Croesus! We are rich! It is superb! It is magnificent! Listen! I read again:
--he has a great sum of money in banknotes here; half a million dollars, he said. He showed it to me. It was hard to believe there was so much. Why, you could just make a little bundle of it and put it under your arm. I asked him why he had it here, and he patted it and smiled at me, and told me it was the only safe thing to do. And then he tried to explain a lot of things to me about money that I couldn't understand at all.
Paul Cremarre looked up, and waved the letter about jubilantly.
"Yes, yes!" he cried. "I am awake! See! I pinch myself! It is amazing! In banknotes! In American money! _That_ is valuable, eh? And a little bundle that one could put under one's arm!"
Captain Francis Newcombe's lips were a straight line under the bandages.
"I'm afraid I don't get the point," he said coldly.
"The point!" Paul Cremarre's face was flushed now, his eyes burned with excitement. "But, sacre nom, the point is--a half million dollars in cash. And so easy! It is ours for the taking. The man is--ha, ha!--yes, I learned something in the war from the Americans--he is what they call a nut!" He tapped his forehead. "And from the nut we extract the kernel! Yes?"
"I think not!" said Captain Francis Newcombe evenly.
"Heh?" The Frenchman stared incredulously. "But it must be that you joke--a little joke of exquisite irony. Yes, of course; for what could be better--or suit us better? We were about to lay low for a while because it was becoming too hot for us on this side of the water--and, presto, like a gift of the gods, there immediately awaits us fortune on the other side!"