"Well you very nearly did," confessed Burgh candidly, "I came at night and climbed all four trees before I nipped the box. Then I prized it open and climbed down leaving the box, so that Lo-Keong might get sold when he came to look. Just as I got down, that old housekeeper of yours screeched, and cut. I was startled, and dropped the fan. Not wishing to leave that behind, I began to look for it. Then you and the butler turned up and I lighted out sharp." "What happened next?" "Well I wanted the money, but not knowing the days of Hwei and Tung-yu, thought I might get stabbed, instead of the money. So I took the packet to Aunty, and asked her to go up, telling her Tung-yu would give her the money. She fell into the trap." "But she knew that Hwei--" "It wasn't Hwei's day," said Burgh, "at least it turned out so, though I didn't know it at the time, and so sent on Aunty to get the cash. I intended to pull the dollars out of her when she did get them, or leave her to die if Hwei knifed her." "You blackguard." "Go slow," said Burgh coolly, "aunty was no friend to you. I say, do you know why aunty wanted me to marry Olivia. It was because I'm married already and if--" He got no further. Rupert knocked him backwards into the mud. Burgh leaped to his feet, and suddenly cried, "Look behind." Rupert did so very foolishly, and Burgh flung himself forward. But all the same Burgh was right to warn Ainsleigh. A man was staggering along the wharf. He was in Chinese dress. "Knife him, Tung-yu," cried Burgh, struggling with Rupert, "I'll hold him. He's got the papers." The Chinaman gave a screech and hurled himself on the pair. Rupert wrenched himself away from Burgh and struck out at Tung-yu. At the same moment he heard another cry, and Hwei came leaping down the wharf. Before Tung-yu could turn, his enemy was on him, and as Rupert was again closing in death grips with Burgh, he had no time to see what was taking place. He could hear the Chinamen snarling like angry cats on the wharf, and was himself fighting in the mud with Burgh for his life. Luckily Rupert got his hand free and it was the one which held the revolver. He fired at random--three shots. There was a shout in the distance: but at that moment, the buccaneer seized him by the throat and threw him down. Rupert with a strangled cry felt himself being forced beneath the water, and thought the end had come. He could hear the struggle between Hwei and Tung-yu going on furiously, and hear also very faintly the deep laughter of his opponent. Then he lost consciousness. Everything became dark, and Rupert's last thought was that all his pains had been in vain. He would die, and Olivia would be a widow. CHAPTER XXIV THE FULFILLED PROPHECY