Baynes flushed with pleasure.
"I've had a plain-clothes man waiting at the station all the
week. Wherever the High Gable folk go he will keep them in
sight. But he must have been hard put to it when Miss Burnet
broke away. However, your man picked her up, and it all ends
well. We can't arrest without her evidence, that is clear, so
the sooner we get a statement the better."
"Every minute she gets stronger," said Holmes, glancing at the
governess. "But tell me, Baynes, who is this man Henderson?"
"Henderson," the inspector answered, "is Don Murillo, once call
the Tiger of San Pedro."
The Tiger of San Pedro! The whole history of the man came back
to me in a flash. He had made his name as the most lewd and
bloodthirsty tyrant that had ever governed any country with a
pretence to civilization. Strong, fearless, and energetic, he
had sufficient virtue to enable him to impose his odious vices
upon a cowering people for ten or twelve years. His name was a
terror through all Central America. At the end of that time
there was a universal rising against him. But he was as cunning
as he was cruel, and at the first whisper of coming trouble he
had secretly conveyed his treasures aboard a ship which was
manned by devoted adherents.
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