"What is it that particularly makes you think it was Mr. Majendie?" "I just think it, sir; I can't rightly say why." "What did he do, exactly?" said Quarles. "Just show me--show me his action. Here are the bits of rock in the bag; take the bag up and pretend to pitch it into the sea, as he did." The sailor took up the bag and did so. His pantomime was quite realistic. "I note that you turn your back to us," said Quarles. "Ay, sir, because his back was turned to me. It wasn't until he made the action of throwing--just like that, it was--that I knew he had anything in his hand." "Did you call out to him?" "No; he was there and gone directly." "It was a bad throw, too?" "Ay, sir, it was; he did it awkward, something like women throws when they ain't used to throwing." "That good fellow would feel far more uncomfortable in the witness-box than most criminals do in the dock," said Quarles when the sailor had gone. "He is as certain that it was Mr. Majendie as he is certain of anything, but he is not going to commit himself. Shall we have a talk with Mr. Majendie next? Let me question him, Wigan." Majendie's appearance was in his favor. He might be a villain, but he didn't look it. There was Southern warmth in his countenance and temper in his dark eyes, but his smile was prepossessing. "A sailor's absurd mistake has put you to great inconvenience, I fear," said Quarles. "The inconvenience is nothing," was the answer. "I court enquiry." "Of course you were not on the deck that night?" "No." "It is Mr. Hardiman's past I want to get at," said the professor. "You had some talk with him during the voyage; what did you think was his business in life?" "He was a traveler. I think he had been where no other civilized man has been. He did not directly tell me so, but I fancy he had wandered in the interior of Patagonia." "Should you say he was a geologist?" "No," said Majendie with a smile. "He showed me some pieces of rock he had with him; indeed, I am suspected of flinging some of these bits of rock away in that canvas bag I see there. Is it likely I should do anything so foolish? It is part of my business to know something of bits of rock and blue clay and the like, and unless I am much mistaken those bits of rock are uncut diamonds." "Diamonds!" I exclaimed. "Yellow diamonds of a kind that are very rarely found," Majendie answered. "I may be mistaken, but that is my opinion. If I am right, the actual gem, when cut, would be comparatively small. It is enclosed, as it were, in a thick casing of rock." "Did Hardiman know this?" Quarles asked. "I am not sure. In the course of conversation I told him that I knew something about diamonds, and he asked me into his cabin to show me some bits of rock he had in his trunk. He spoke of them as bits of rock, but he may have known what they really were." "Did he give you this invitation quite openly?" asked Quarles.