He had succeeded in
assuming so well a tone of impartial indifference, that Sotillo seemed
to be completely deceived. Till then a show of regular inquiry had
been kept up; one of the officers sitting at the table wrote down the
questions and the answers, the others, lounging about the room, listened
attentively, puffing at their long cigars and keeping their eyes on the
doctor. But at that point Sotillo ordered everybody out.
CHAPTER THREE
Directly they were alone, the colonel's severe official manner changed.
He rose and approached the doctor. His eyes shone with rapacity and
hope; he became confidential. "The silver might have been indeed put on
board the lighter, but it was not conceivable that it should have been
taken out to sea." The doctor, watching every word, nodded slightly,
smoking with apparent relish the cigar which Sotillo had offered him
as a sign of his friendly intentions. The doctor's manner of cold
detachment from the rest of the Europeans led Sotillo on, till, from
conjecture to conjecture, he arrived at hinting that in his opinion this
was a putup job on the part of Charles Gould, in order to get hold
of that immense treasure all to himself.
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