"Don't I, just? That's what I'm driving at. He's a sea-captain, and the coves as kidnapped Armour are sailors----"
"Pooh! Pooh! Armour wasn't sure on that point."
"He saw that one was brass-bound," retorted Sweetlips, "and merchant officers usually go about in their swagger togs to get the women after them. I'm certain that the brass-bound cove was officering a relief party of sailors. If my guess is right, that connects Kyles with them."
"I don't quite see----"
"Oh, it's all theory, of course, but we've got to grope in the dark before we fetch the light, doctor. Kyles is a sailor, and those men who captured Armour are sailors. Very good then; the case stands something in this way. Sir Simon's only daughter and heiress is engaged, against the will of her father, to Kyles, and Sir Simon is unexpectedly murdered. Beforehand, evidently expecting to be killed, he wrote a secret letter to someone on board a boat called the 'Tarabacca,' disinheriting his daughter. Tarabacca is, as you think, an Indian word. Suppose we learn that it is an Indiana word, we've connected Kyles, who is in the service of the Republic, closer with the matter. The marked shawl and the secret letter form the connecting links, don't you see?"
"Humph," assented Browne, somewhat struck by this lucid reasoning, "of course it's all theory. However," he crossed to the book-case, "the matter of the name is easily settled. I have an atlas here."
"I doubt if you'll spot it, doctor. However, we can but try."
And the doctor did try. Turning over the pages, until he came to the map of South America, he searched the portion, coloured yellow, to the far south of the Continent, which represented the tiny republic of Indiana. But no name could be found even distantly resembling the one they were in search of.
"Hold on," said Browne, as Sweetlips shook his head with a disappointed air, "I'll turn up the index. Often names that are not set down on the map, are catalogued there." He ran his finger down the page. "Ta,--Tag,--Tap,--Tar,--here you are, Kind. Tarabacca, Map 45, Lat. 44, Long. 73° 6 E," again he reverted to the map. "Yes. It's certainly in Indiana, for here is the Republic in the latitude referred to. Tarabacca isn't set down here, but as it's in the same latitude, you may depend that it's a town or a lake or a mountain in the Indiana Republic, and the yacht's been named after it."
"Which shows that Kyles is connected with the crime."