Oor captive sat in the cabin opposite to the iron box which hehad done so much and waited so long to gain. He was asunburned reckless-eyed fellow, with a network of lines andwrinkles all over his mahogany features, which told of a hard,open-air life. There was a singular prominence about his beardedchin which marked a man who was not to be easily turned fromhis purpose. His age may have been fifty or thereabouts, for hisblack, curly hair was thickly shot with gray. His face in reposewas not an unpleasing one, though his heavy brows and aggres-sive chin gave him, as I had lately seen, a terrible expressionwhen moved to anger. He sat now with his handcuffed handsupon his lap, and his head sunk upon his breast, while he lookedwith his keen, twinkling eyes at the box which had been thecause of his ill-doings. It seemed to me that there was moresorrow than anger in his rigid and contained countenance. Oncehe looked up at me with a gleam of something like humour in hiseyes.

"Well, Jonathan Small," said Holmes, lighting a cigar, "I amsorry that it has come to this."

"And so am I, sir," he answered frankly. "I don't believethat I can swing over the job. I give you my word on the bookthat I never raised hand against Mr. Sholto. It was that littlehell-hound; Tonga, who shot one of his cursed darts into him. Ihad no part in it, sir. I was as grieved as if it had been myblood-relation. I welted the little devil with the slack end of therope for it, but it was done, and I could not undo it again."

"Have a cigar," said Holmes; "and you had best take a pullout of my flask, for you are very wet. How could you expect sosmall and weak a man as this black fellow to overpower Mr.Sholto and hold him while you were climbing the rope?"

"You seem to know as much about it as if you were there, sir.The truth is that I hoped to find the room clear. I knew the habitsof the house pretty well, and it was the time when Mr. Sholtousually went down to his supper. I shall make no secret of thebusiness. The best defence that I can make is just the simpletruth. Now, if it had been the old major I would have swung forhim with a light heart. I would have thought no more of knifinghim than of smoking this cigar. But it's cursed hard that I shouldbe lagged over this young Sholto, with whom I had no quarrelwhatever."

"You are under the charge of Mr. Athelney Jones, of ScotlandYard. He is going to bring you up to my rooms, and I shall askyou for a true account of the matter. You must make a cleanbreast of it, for if you do I hope that I may be of use to you. Ithink T can prove that the poison acts so quickly that the man wasdead before ever you reached the room."

"That he was, sir. I never got such a turn in my life as when Isaw him grinning at me with his head on his shoulder as Iclimbed through the window. It fairly shook me, sir. I'd havehalf killed Tonga for it if he had not scrambled off. That washow he came to leave his club, and some of his darts too, as hetells me, which I dare say helped to put you on our track; thoughhow you kept on it is more than I can tell. I don't feel no maliceagainst you for it. But it does seem a queer thing," he addedwith a bitter smile, "that I, who have a fair claim to half amillion of money, should spend the first half of my life buildinga breakwater in the Andamans, and am like to spend the otherhalf digging drains at Dartmoor. It was an evil day for me whenfirst I clapped eyes upon the merchant Achmet and had to dowith the Agra treasure, which never brought anything but a curseyet upon the man who owned it. To him it brought murder, toMajor Sholto it brought fear and guilt, to me it has meant slaveryfor life."

At this moment Athelney Jones thrust his broad face andheavy shoulders into the tiny cabin.

"Quite a family party," he remarked. "I think I shall have apull at that flask, Holmes. Well, I think we may all congratulateeach other. Pity we didn't take the other alive, but there was nochoice. I say, Holmes, you must confess that you cut it ratherfine. It was all we could do to overhaul her."

"All is well that ends well," said Holmes. "But I certainlydid not know that the Aurora was such a clipper."

"Smith says she is one of the fastest launches on the river,and that if he had had another man to help him with the engineswe should never have caught her. He swears he knew nothing ofthis Norwood business."

"Neither he did," cried our prisoner -- "not a word. I chosehis launch because I heard that she was a flier. We told himnothing; but we paid him well, and he was to get somethinghandsome if we reached our vessel, the Esmeralda, at Graves-end, outward bound for the Brazils."

"Well, if he has done no wrong we shall see that no wrongcomes to him. If we are pretty quick in catching our men, we arenot so quick in condemning them." It was amusing to noticehow the consequential Jones was already beginning to givehimself airs on the strength of the capture. From the slight smilewhich played over Sherlock Holmes's face, I could see that thespeech had not been lost upon him.

"'We will be at Vauxhall Bridge presently," said Jones, "andshall land you, Dr. Watson, with the treasure-box. I need hardlytell you that I am taking a very grave responsibility upon myselfin doing this. It is most irregular, but of course an agreement isan agreement. I must, however, as a matter of duty, send aninspector with you, since you have so valuable a charge. Youwill drive, no doubt?"

"Yes, I shall drive."

"It is a pity there is no key, that we may make an inventoryfirst. You will have to break it open. Where is the key, myman?"

"At the bottom of the river," said Small shortly.

"Hum! There was no use your giving this unnecessary trou-ble. We have had work enough already through you. However,Doctor, I need not warn you to be careful. Bring the box backwith you to the Baker Street rooms. You will find us there, onour way to the station."

They landed me at Vauxhall, with my heavy iron box, andwith a bluff, genial inspector as my companion. A quarter of anhour's drive brought us to Mrs. Cecil Forrester's. The servantseemed surprised at so late a visitor. Mrs. Cecil Forrester wasout for the evening, she explained, and likely to be very late.Miss Morstan, however, was in the drawing-room, so to thedrawing-room I went, box in hand, leaving the obliging inspec-tor in the cab.

She was seated by the open window, dressed in some sort ofwhite diaphanous material, with a little touch of scarlet at theneck and waist. The soft light of a shaded lamp fell upon her asshe leaned back in the basket chair, playing over her sweet graveface, and tinting with a dull, metallic sparkle the rich coils of herluxuriant hair. One white arm and hand drooped over the side ofthe chair, and her whole pose and figure spoke of an absorbingmelancholy. At the sound of my footfall she sprang to her feet,however, and a bright flush of surprise and of pleasure colouredher pale cheeks.

"I heard a cab drive up," she said. "I thought that Mrs.Forrester had come back very early, but I never dreamed that itmight be you. What news have you brought me?"

"I have brought something better than news," said I, puttingdown the box upon the table and speaking jovially and boister-ously, though my heart was heavy within me. "I have broughtyou something which is worth all the news in the world. I havebrought you a fortune."

She glanced at the iron box.

"Is that the treasure then?" she asked, coolly enough.

"Yes, this is the great Agra treasure. Half of it is yours andhalf is Thaddeus Sholto's. You will have a couple of hundredthousand each. Think of that! An annuity of ten thousand pounds.There will be few richer young ladies in England. Is it notglorious?"

I think I must have been rather over-acting my delight, andthat she defected a hollow ring in my congratulations, for I sawher eyebrows rise a little, and she glanced at me curiously.

"If I have it," said she, "I owe it to you."

"No, no," I answered, "not to me but to my friend SherlockHolmes. With all the will in the world, I could never havefollowed up-a clue which has taxed even his analytical genius.As it was, we very nearly lost it at the last moment."

"Pray sit down and tell me all about it, Dr. Watson," saidshe.

I narrated briefly what had occurred since I had seen her last.Holmes's new method of search, the discovery of the Aurora,the appearance of Athelney Jones, our expedition in the evening,and the wild chase down the Thames. She listened with partedlips and shining eyes to my recital of our adventures. When Ispoke of the dart which had so narrowly missed us, she turned sowhite that I feared that she was about to faint.

"It is nothing," she said as I hastened to pour her out somewater. "I am all right again. It was a shock to me to hear that Ihad placed my friends in such horrible peril."

"That is all over," I answered. "It was nothing. I will tellyou no more gloomy details. Let us turn to something brighter.There is the treasure. What could be brighter than that? I gotleave to bring it with me, thinking that it would interest you tobe the first to see it."

"It would be of the greatest interest to me," she said. Therewas no eagerness in her voice, however. It had struck her,doubtless, that it might seem ungracious upon her part to beindifferent to a prize which had cost so much to win.

"What a pretty box!" she said, stooping over it. "This isIndian work, I suppose?"

"Yes; it is Benares metal-work."

"And so heavy!" she exclaimed, trying to raise it. "The boxalone must be of some value. Where is the key?"

"Small threw it into the Thames," I answered. "I mustborrow Mrs. Forrester's poker."

There was in the front a thick and broad hasp, wrought in theimage of a sitting Buddha. Under this I thrust the end of thepoker and twisted it outward as a lever. The hasp sprang openwith a loud snap. With trembling fingers I flung back the lid. Weboth stood gazing in astonishment. The box was empty!

No wonder that it was heavy. The ironwork was two-thirds ofan inch thick all round. It was massive, well made, and solid,like a chest constructed to carry things of great price, but not oneshred or crumb of metal or jewellery lay within it. It wasabsolutely and completely empty.

"The treasure is lost," said Miss Morstan calmly.

As I listened to the words and realized what they meant, agreat shadow seemed to pass from my soul. I did not know howthis Agra treasure had weighed me down until now that it wasfinally removed. It was selfish, no doubt, disloyal, wrong, but Icould realize nothing save that the golden barrier was gone frombetween us.

"Thank God!" I ejaculated from my very heart.

She looked at me with a quick, questioning smile.

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"Because you are within my reach again," I said, taking herhand. She did not withdraw it. "Because I love you, Mary, astruly as ever a man loved a woman. Because this treasure, theseriches, sealed my lips. Now that they are gone I can tell you howI love you. That is why I said, 'Thank God.' "

"Then I say 'Thank God,' too," she whispered as I drew herto my side.

Whoever had lost a treasure, I knew that night that I hadgained one.