“After all, it doesn’t matter very much,” he mumbled to himself. “The attempts which Stone has made are only known to four or five persons at most. They are the two most concerned, young Floyd, and the stranger who, according to Stone’s admission, separated him and Crawford on the boat. His knowledge and that of Floyd would be dangerous if Crawford were to be put out of the way in any ordinary fashion, but neither would be suspicious if he succumbed to a tropical disease. It would never occur to them to question his death under such circumstances, and even if it did, they wouldn’t give Stone credit for so much ingenuity. As for me, I’m above suspicion, except in the eyes of a very few persons—notably Nick Carter’s. I shouldn’t like him to get wind of this, but there’s little or no likelihood of his doing so.” James Stone had not known of the detective’s identity, because the latter’s name had not appeared on the passenger list of the _Cortez_, and, strictly speaking, it had been a breach of confidence on the part of the chief steward when the latter had revealed Carter’s name to Crawford. Had Follansbee known more of the mysterious stranger whose intervention had been so unfortunate from Stone’s standpoint, even his cold, hard calm would have been broken up, and he would have cut off his right hand rather than have anything to do with the affair. So far as his knowledge went, however, it seemed sufficiently safe to venture on what he had in view. “Anyhow, I run no risk,” he concluded. “Both Stone and Crawford seem to have no friends in the city, and if there should be a coroner’s inquest the death would be put down as resulting from natural causes.” He ran his fingers over the test tubes with a touch that was almost caressing, and on his sallow, leathery face there rested a malevolent smile. “My first step in the career of crime,” he resumed, “was not very successful, I’ll have to admit. It involved considerable risk, and I was infernally lucky to have crawled out of it as well as I did. I was a fool then, though, and I won’t take any such risks in future. I’ll be the ‘man behind’ this time. Stone will execute the work, and when it’s duly accomplished, the reward will be mine, and I think I can worry along for some time on that amount.”