if you had really been away that night, next morning you would
probably have been greeted with the information that Bendigo had
disappeared. You would possibly have found evidences of a struggle
in the tower room and a pint of blood judiciously decorating the
floor, but nothing else.

"Only on the assumption that Pendean had found you out can I explain
why this didn't start under your nose. I imagine that if he had
believed his master alone at one o'clock that night, he would have
knocked him on the head and proceeded as I suggest. But he does no
such thing. He arrives in great excitement to describe another
meeting with Robert and to report that the wanderer has changed his
mind and will only see his brother in his own secret hiding-place
after dark.

"On hearing this, Bendigo bids you come out of your cupboard, and
Doria, so to call him, pretends great indignation and surprise.

"Now we get another lifelike report of runaway Robert; and finally
Bendigo consents to visit him in his hiding-place. The lamp is going
to burn and show the particular cave on that honeycombed coast where
Bendigo's brother is supposed to be concealed. Another night comes
and Ben goes to his death. Probably he was murdered instantly on
landing and disposed of at sea. Again there is going to be no dead
man. Pendean returns to you and his wife at 'Crow's Nest.' He
reports that the brothers are conferring and reveals the situation
of the hiding-place. He is soon off again and, on his second visit,
plays his tiger tricks, runs a bloody trail up the tunnel to the
plateau, and sets his trap for the police next morning.