“It was,” Gees assented. “I know very little about it, and that little out of an old legend of the East which a writer put into a novel of his— and even then only as a side-issue. Just enough to give me the idea that seems to have crossed your mind, in fact.”
“That— that Robert Hunter found ’em, and brought one back?”
Bird asked. “Because that’s how it looked and still looks to me.”
“I am inclined to think so,” Gees assented. “And now— I’m beginning to wonder why a man with your intelligence and knowledge has to do odd jobs in a village like this, Bird, but that’s your business—”
“No. If you’ll forgive me for buttin’ in, it ain’t, sir— that is, I don’t mind your makin’ the remark. Like this. I had my wander years, as I count ’em, east and west and everywhere. Some people store up money
