"I think you're right," he said calmly. "Probably they would. But the police would be wrong. We were not accessory, either before or since. We haven't the ghost of a notion as to the identity of the Quicks' murderers. But since we're discussing that, I'll tell you both of something that seems to have completely escaped the notice of the police, the detectives, and of you yourself, Middlebrook. You remember that in both cases the clothing of the murdered men had been literally ripped to pieces?" "Very well," said I. "It had--in Salter's, anyway, to my knowledge." "And so, they said, it had in Noah's," replied Baxter. "And the presumption, of course, was that the murderers were searching for something?" "Of course," I said. "What other presumption could there be?" Baxter gave us both a keen, knowing look, bent across the table, and tapped my arm as if to arrest my closer attention. "How do you know that the murderers didn't find what they were seeking for?" he asked in a low, forceful voice. "Come, now!" I stared at him; so, too, did Miss Raven. He laughed. "That, certainly, doesn't seem to have struck anybody," he said. "I'm sure, anyway, it hasn't struck you before. Does it now?" "I'd never thought of it," I admitted. "Exactly! Nor, according to the papers--and to my private information--had anybody," he answered. "Yet--it would have been the very first thought that would have occurred to me. I should have said to myself, seeing the ripped-up clothing, 'Whoever murdered these men was in search of something that one or other of the two had concealed on him, and the probability is, he's got it.' Of course!" "I'm sure nobody--police or detectives--ever did think of that," said I. "But--perhaps with your knowledge of the Quicks' antecedents and queer doings, you have some knowledge of what they might be likely to carry about them?" He laughed at that, and again leaned nearer to us. "Aye, well!" he replied. "As I've told you so much, I'll tell you something more. I do know of something that the two men had on them when they were on that miserable island and that they, of course, carried away with them when they escaped. Noah and Salter Quick were then in possession of two magnificent rubies--worth no end of money!" CHAPTER XXI THE CHINESE GENTLEMAN I could not repress an unconscious, involuntary start on hearing this remarkable declaration; it seemed to open, as widely as suddenly, an entirely new field of vision; it was as if some hand had abruptly torn aside a veil and shown me something that I had never dreamed of. And Baxter laughed, significantly. "That strikes you, Middlebrook?" he said. "Very forcibly, indeed!" said I. "If what you say is true--I mean, if one of those two men had such valuables on him, then there's a reason for the murder of both that none of us knew of. But--is it probable that the Quicks would still be in possession of jewels that you saw some years ago?"