"Yes," said Fairbairn gloomily. "But——" and he shrugged his shoulders.
"But it's one of the ninety per cent, which go wrong, eh?" Hillyard finished the sentence with bitterness. Disappointment was heavy upon both men. Hillyard, too, was tired by the tension of these last sleepless days. He had not understood how much he had counted upon success.
"Yes, it's damnably disheartening," he cried. "I thought these tubes might lead us pretty straight to B45."
"B45!"
The exclamation came from José Medina, who was leaning against the doorpost of the saloon, half in the room, half out on the sunlit deck. He had placed himself tactfully aloof. The examination of the cases was none of his business. Now, however, his face lit up.
"B45." He shut the door and took a seat at the table. "I can tell you about B45."
CHAPTER XVIII
The Uses of Science
It was Hillyard's creed that chance will serve a man very capably, if he is equipped to take advantage of its help; and here was an instance. The preparation had begun on the morning when Hillyard took the Dragonfly into the harbour of Palma. Chance had offered her assistance some months later in an hotel at Madrid; as Medina was now to explain.