J. S. Fletcher

“ I helped her to climb the wall and down into the moat, and we began to pick up the pieces of broken chinaware from the weeds and grass in which they lay. And from this moment onwards I began to get more and more bewildered and puzzled: the mystery of Cousins’ murder, and the stealing of the Kang-he vase, and Uncle Joseph’s possession of it, and our own kidnapping, and the Getch affair, and the presence on the island of Mandhu Khan, seemed to take on more amazing and baffling features than ever. ”

“ He ruminated a little over that, and then moved towards his shotgun, as if he meant to pick it up.
“Well, I ain’t a-going to get myself mixed up in things o’ that sort, young master,” he said. “I put in to this here island in consequence of a letter what I got from Getch at a certain port I was in, down Channel, a-purpose to give a passage to Krevin, and maybe to Getch. And as Getch is dead, and Krevin’s having a brown-faced man a-hunting of him, I shall just go my ways! I can stand a good deal, but being a plain man I dislikes mysteries, and I can’t abide murder!” ”

“ Dead?—um! But Krevin? Where’s he? For I reckon he’d be with you.”
“I don’t know where he is,” I said. “He was in that tower this morning: we left him there. He sent us out to look for a brown man that’s got on the island somehow and that’s after him!”
“After him?” he said. “A brown man?”
“A Hindu,” I answered. “It may have been he that killed Getch—I don’t know. Anyway, Krevin’s made off from that tower, and I believe the Hindu chap’s stalking him. I thought Krevin was down on the south shore somewhere—I heard what I believed to be a shot from his pistol down there, some time ago.” ”