Page:Fletcher - The Mortover Grange Affair.pdf/249

 black hull of the liner. There had been no grand dramatic scene, after all!

"I don't understand!" he growled.

"Daresay you don't my lad!" chuckled Wedgwood, who seemed to be in great good humour and immensely pleased with himself. "But you will—you will in time!"

The apprentice followed unwillingly and sat glowering and gumpy while the three detectives chatted and gossiped over their tea. And when later he and Wedgwood boarded the train for London and Wedgwood explained what had taken place with Wraypoole on the landing-stage he shook his head disapprovingly.

"I suppose you know your job better than I do, Mr. Wedgwood!" he muttered. "But I wouldn't have believed a word Thomas Wraypoole said. I should say he stuck Mr. Morgan Pugh's name in those papers himself!"

"Mr. Pugh can settle that matter, my lad," replied Wedgwood. "To-morrow, or next day, or the day after—I'm not particular about that, or when! I got a bit of information from Wraypoole that'll probably help me more than anything I've had so far, and I shouldn't have got it if I hadn't put him in a bit of a temporary fix. But I feel sure my notion's right—Wraypoole didn't see Pugh about these verifications; he saw some man who was deputising for Pugh,