Miller's tone was reflective and impassive. He had found out one of the things he wanted to know. As he suspected, they were being taken to some remoteness, probably an island. He digested the information silently. "You must pardon the want of--of finish in our arrangements," said Landon. "Your capture was entirely unpremeditated; you were a gift from the hand of fate. Your suggestion about my child undid you. The boy has become the pivot of Muhammed's existence. Queer, don't you think? I have never professed to plumb the depths of the Oriental mind." "And Miss Van Arlen and Aylmer?" questioned Miller. "That was a matter of premeditation?" "Nothing less than an inspiration, a stroke of genius conceived in a moment in Muhammed's brain. Premeditate? How could we premeditate? We expected you and you only, or your messenger, by the next day's boat." Miller nodded. "Miss Van Arlen and her companion are officially drowned," he said. "My own disappearance--how is that accounted for?" "The matter is now probably engaging the interest of the Melilla police. They need distraction; theirs is a gray life," said Landon, pleasantly. Again Miller nodded, perhaps unconsciously, and in assent to some deduction of his own mind. He kept his meditative air for a second or two, shrugged his shoulders again pessimistically, and then made a brisk gesture of acquiescence. "And your terms--to myself--are what?" he asked. "Ten thousand golden sovereigns," said Landon. "Do I hurt your self-esteem by my moderation?" Miller smiled again sombrely. "That is, of course, preposterous," he said. "I do not possess half the sum. I should not pay it, if I did. If the alternative is that you support me for the remaining number of my days, I must accept it." "That would not be the alternative," answered Landon. "In fact, I hope to be able to prove to you that an alternative is lacking. But, at the same time, I am willing to hear proposals." "My proposal remains what it was yesterday. Make your peace with your wife's family, give up the child. I shall then be able, I have little doubt, to put you in the way of earning more than the sum you suggest. But that you become a person tolerated in ordinary English society is essential." "I am, in fact, to work laboriously for what is already in my grasp. You underrate my business capacity, my dear sir, you really do." The gray shoulders were shrugged. "I might possibly allow a payment of a thousand--let us say--on account. That would suffice to establish you in a decent and plausible position. The work, as you call it, would not be difficult. I rather fancy you would find it amusing." "I think you want me badly," said Landon. "I think I must be unique for your purposes." "Don't assume that it is your intelligence which my employers wish to buy," said Miller, coolly. "It is your social standing, still something of an asset in your caste-ridden land."