“I can’t help that.”
“Thirdly, he inquires for you on his way back from Hamburg, three weeks after the event. It doesn’t look as if he thought he had disposed of you—it doesn’t look as if he had meant to dispose of you. He sends his daughter, too; a curious proceeding under the circumstances. Perhaps it’s all a mistake.”
“It’s not a mistake,” said Davies, half to himself. “But did he send her? He’d have sent one of his men. He can’t be on board at all.”
This was a new light.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“He must have left the yacht when he got to Hamburg; some other devil’s work, I suppose. She’s being sailed back now, and passing here——”
“Oh, I see! It’s a private supplementary inquiry.”
“That’s a long name to call it.”
“Would the girl sail back alone with the crew?”
“She’s used to the sea—and perhaps she isn’t alone. There was that stepmother—— But it doesn’t make a ha’porth of difference to our plans; we’ll start on the ebb to-morrow morning.”