“Because Banat would certainly have been replaced. We know all about Banat. A strange Monsieur Mavrodopoulos would have been a new problem.”
“But you say that Banat’s, or, rather, Moeller’s idea might have been to scare me off the boat. Banat could not know that I knew him?”
“You told Colonel Haki that Banat was pointed out to you in Le Jockey Cabaret. Banat was watching you then. He would probably know that you had noticed him. He is not an amateur. You see Colonel Haki’s point of view? If they were hoping to drive you on to the land and kill you there, it would be better for them to attempt to do so and fail than for the attempt to be frustrated in time for them to make other arrangements. As it happens, however,” he went on cheerfully, “their intention was not to drive you on to the land and my precautions were wasted. Banat did join the ship, but he stayed in his cabin until the pilot had been taken off.”
“Precisely!” snarled Graham. “I could have gone ashore, taken a train and been safe in Paris by now.”
Mr. Kuvetli considered the criticism for a moment and then slowly shook his head. “I do not think so. You have forgotten Monsieur Moeller. I do not think that he and Banat would have stayed on the boat very long if you had not returned by sailing time.”
Graham laughed shortly. “Did you know that then?”
Mr. Kuvetli contemplated dirty fingernails. “I will be very honest, Monsieur Graham. I did not know it. I knew of Monsieur Moeller, of course. I was, through an intermediary, once offered a large sum of money to work for him. I had seen a photograph of him. But photographs are mostly useless. I did not recognise him. The fact that he came aboard at Istanbul prevented my suspecting him. Banat’s behaviour made me think that I had overlooked something, and when I saw him talking to the Herr Professor I made some inquiries.”
“He says that you searched his cabin.”
“I did. I found letters addressed to him in Sofia.”
“There has,” said Graham bitterly, “been quite a lot of cabin searching. Last night Banat stole my revolver from my suitcase. This evening I went to his cabin and tried to find his gun, the gun he used on me in Istanbul. It was not there. When I returned to my cabin, Moeller was there with Banat’s gun.”