Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/232

222 way—look for yourself. Now not one landsman in a hundred seizes a rope's end. This line was taken from some ship in the harbour, and By Jove! here's another discovery!"

"What now?" he cried, almost as excited by this time as I was myself.

"Why, look here," I said, holding the middle of the rope up so that we could get a better view of it. "Not very many hours ago this rope was running through a block, and that block was rather an uncommon one."

"How do you know it was an uncommon one?"

"Because it has been newly painted, and what's funnier still, painted green, of all other colours. Look at this streak of paint along the line; see how it's smudged. Now let's review the case as we walk along."

So saying, with the Marquis between us, we set off down the street, hoping soon to pick up an early cab.

"First and foremost," I said, "remember old Draper's talk of the South Seas—remember the collection of curios he possessed. Probably he owns a schooner, and it's more than probable that this line and this bit of canvas came from it."

"I see what you're driving at," said the inspector. "It's worth considering. Directly I get to the office I will set men to work to try and find this mysterious gentleman. You would know him again, my lord?"

"I should know him anywhere," was Beckenham's immediate reply.

"And have you any idea at all where this house to which he conducted you is located?"

"None at all. I only know that it was about half way down a street of which all the houses, save the one at the corner—which was a grocer's shop—were one-storied villas."