I am Martin--the same
man that outwitted Melhuish and his crew--the same that played Harry
with this Glass, and the man Coffin, and a drunken old ruffian they
brought with them from Whydah! The fools! to think to frighten _me_,
that had started by laying out a whole ship's crew! And now you come
along; and I hold you all in the hollow of my palm. But I open my
hand--so--and let you go."
"Why?"
"Why? I have told you. I am tired."
"That is not all the truth," answered Miss Belcher, eyeing him
steadily.
"No; it is not all the truth. No one tells all the truth in this
world. But I am glad you challenge me, for you shall have a little
more of the truth. I let you go because you were simpletons, and I
had not dealt with simpletons before."
"Is _that_ the truth?" she persisted.
He laughed and sipped his wine.
"No; I let you go because I saw in you--I who have killed many for
wealth and more for the mere pleasure of power--something which told
me that, after all, I had missed the secret. From an outcast child
in Havana I had made myself the sole king of this treasure of
Mortallone. I went back and made slaves of men and women who had
tossed that child their coppers in contemptuous pity.
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