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 “Then this is your knife?” Barnes broke in, holding it before me.

“No question about it,” said I.

“How do you account for the fact that it was found beside the dead man?”

I turned in time to catch the look that passed between Parker and Carlotta Drew, and hot anger filled my heart.

“It was stolen, of course,” I said.

“Of course,” smiled the detective.

“I had not missed it yet,” I went on, “but it must have been taken from my luggage, in the stateroom, sometime today. There were just two men who had access to that luggage. One was the dead man, who could hardly have taken it.”

“And the other?” cried Mark Drew suddenly.

“The other,” said I, “was Doctor Parker, who at seven-thirty to-night claims he was lost in the fog.”

“Nonsense!” said Parker. “What motive” Rh