Part 44 (2/2)
”Well?”
”No luck, sir,” Quest announced. ”Your steward has given us every a.s.sistance possible and we have searched the s.h.i.+p thoroughly. Unless he has found a hiding place unknown to your steward, and not apparent to us, the man is not on board.”
The Captain frowned slightly.
”You are not suggesting that that is possible, I suppose?”
Quest did not at once reply. He was thinking of Laura's obstinacy.
”Personally,” he admitted, ”I should not have believed it possible. The young lady of our party, however, who declares that she saw Craig board the steamer, is quite immovable.”
The Captain rose to his feet. He was a man of medium height, strongly built, with short brown beard and keen blue eyes.
”This matter must be cleared up entirely,” he declared brusquely. ”If you will excuse me for a moment, I will talk to the young lady myself.”
He walked firmly down the deck to where the two girls were seated, and paused in front of Laura.
”So you're the young lady,” he remarked, touching his cap, ”who thinks that I come to sea with criminals stowed away on my s.h.i.+p?”
”I don't know what your habits are, Captain,” Laura replied, ”but this particular criminal boarded your s.h.i.+p all right in Southampton Harbour.”
”Anything wrong with your eyesight?” the Captain enquired blandly.
”No,” Laura a.s.sured him. ”I saw the man, saw him just as plainly as I see you now.”
”Do you know,” the Captain persisted, ”that Mr. Quest and Mr. Harris have searched every nook and corner of the s.h.i.+p? They have had an absolutely free hand, and my own steward has been their guide. They have seen every man, boy, woman and animal amongst my crew or pa.s.sengers.”
”They've been fooled somehow,” Laura muttered.
The Captain frowned. He was on the point of a sharp rejoinder when he met Laura's eyes. She was smiling very faintly and there was something in her expression which changed his whole point of view.
”I'll go and make a few enquiries myself,” he declared. ”See you at dinner-time, I hope, young ladies.”
”If you keep her as steady as this,” Laura promised, ”there are hopes.”
He disappeared along the deck, and presently re-entered his room, where Harris and Quest were waiting for him. He was followed by his steward, an under-sized man with pallid complexion and nervous manner. He closed the door behind him.
”Brown,” he said, turning to the steward, ”I understand you to say that you have taken these gentlemen into every corner of the s.h.i.+p, that you have ransacked every possible hiding-place, that you have given them every possible opportunity of searching for themselves?”
”That is quite true, sir,” the man acknowledged.
”You agree with me that it is impossible for any one to remain hidden in this s.h.i.+p?”
”Absolutely, sir.”
”You hear, gentlemen?” the Captain continued. ”I really can do no more. It is perfectly clear to me that the man you are seeking is not on my s.h.i.+p.
Your very charming young lady friend seems to think it impossible that she could have been mistaken, but as a matter of fact she was. If I might take the liberty, Mr. Quest, I would suggest that you ask her, at any rate, to keep her suspicions to herself.”
”I'll see she doesn't talk,” Quest promised. ”Very sorry to have given you all this trouble, I'm sure.”
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