When the captain stopped reading, all of them looked very serious, and no one said a word for several minutes.
"You see," he began at last, "why I don't like the looks of the thing. This seems to cover almost all the points we've been in doubt about, though of course, it does leave quite a little to conjecture. I somehow dislike to think of little Cecily as a mixture of Chinese and English. In fact, it's almost impossible to think of her as such. And yet it seems remarkably near the truth."
"If that man assumed a name," interrupted Marcia, "I suppose it might as easily be Marlowe as anything else."
"Just as easily," admitted Captain Brett.
"And he went back to England—just where Cecily came here from," added Janet, lugubriously.
"But then why doesn't Cecily remember something about him?" cried Marcia, hopefully.
"He may have been dead a good while, or he may have sent her off somewhere else," answered the captain, dashing this hope. "He wouldn't be likely to drag a child about in any such life as he must have had to lead."
They all sank into a depressed silence again. Suddenly Marcia had another idea.
"But look here!" she exclaimed. "Major Goodrich says that man was at Hong Kong and the bracelet says 'Amoy,' as plain as plain can be. Isn't that enough proof that it can't be the same one?"