T. B. made a little grimace.
"Nothing," he said, "and if the original had not been stolen I should not have troubled to study it."
He gained the Strand by a short cut.
A contents bill attracted his attention, and he stopped to buy an evening newspaper.
"LOSS OF A WARSHIP."
He turned the paper before he discovered the small paragraph that justified so large a bill.
"The Brazilian Government has sent another cruiser to search for the Brazilian man-of-war, Maria Braganza, which is a month overdue. It is feared that the warship foundered in the recent cyclone in the South Atlantic."
"Maria Braganza?" thought T. B., and remembered where he had seen the vessel.
The ship and her fate passed out of his mind soon afterward, for he had a great deal of routine work requiring his attention, but the name cropped up again in the course of the day and in a curious manner.
* * * * * * *