I see it all now, and it is just as well to know it.
"Very serious," I affirm, in response to the last remark of my interlocutor.
"Well," he continues, "if I had the honor to be Simon Hart, the engineer, I should reason as follows: 'Given, on the one hand, the personality of Ker Karraje, the reasons which incited him to select such a mysterious retreat as this cavern, the necessity of the said cavern being kept from any attempt to discover it, not only in the interest of the Count d'Artigas, but in that of his companions--'" "Of his accomplices, if you please." "'Of his accomplices,' then--'and on the other hand, given the fact that I know the real name of the Count d'Artigas and in what mysterious safe he keeps his riches--'" "Riches stolen, and stained with blood, Mr.Serko." "'Riches stolen and stained with blood,' if you like--'I ought to understand that this question of liberty cannot be settled in accordance with my desires.'" It is useless to argue the point under these conditions, and I switch the conversation on to another line.
"May I ask," I continue, "how you came to find out that Gaydon, the warder, was Simon Hart, the engineer ?" "I see no reason for keeping you in ignorance on the subject, my dear colleague.

It was largely by hazard.

We had certain relations with the manufactory in New Jersey with which you were connected, and which you quitted suddenly one day under somewhat singular circumstances.

Well, during a visit I made to Healthful House some months before the Count d'Artigas went there, I saw and recognized you." "You ?" "My very self, and from that moment I promised myself the pleasure of having you for a fellow-passenger on board the _Ebba_." I do not recall ever having seen this Serko at Healthful House, but what he says is very likely true.
"I hope your whim of having me for a companion will cost you dear, some day or other," I say to myself.
Then, abruptly, I go on: "If I am not mistaken, you have succeeded in inducing Thomas Roch to disclose the secret of his fulgurator ?" "Yes, Mr.Hart.We paid millions for it.

But millions, you know, are nothing to us.