“It seems wonderful,” Mr. Havens said, “that we should drop into a region, almost by accident, whither so many things connected with the Kuro case were tending. When the Englishman brought the bag, I thought that the most remarkable occurrence in the world. But now the man who stood in the corridor at Colleton’s door seems to lie over yonder in the valley. It seems like a chapter out of a fairy book!”
“Why, it’s all simple enough!” Jimmie argued. “In fact, it’s the most commonplace thing in the world. This big man stripped Colleton of his disguise in the stateroom and put the articles into the bag, intending to throw it off the train the first time he got a chance. He set the bag out into the corridor or the vestibule so it would be handy when the right time came and the porter stole it.”
“Is this a new edition of the dream-book?” asked Carl.
“Then DuBois lost his hand-bag, and asked the porter to provide him one. For all we know the man just killed may have stolen the Englishman’s bag for his own use. Anyway the porter brought DuBois the bag he stole from the man who has just been killed.”
“Go on!” advised Ben with a grin.
“The porter neglected to remove the contents of the bag, and so the articles used in the disguise of Colleton come into the possession of the purchaser. The Englishman sets out on a hunting trip in the Rocky mountains, strays away from his companions, and turns up at the smugglers’ place with the bag in his hands.”
“You’re only relating the obvious now,” Ben criticised.
“And then,” Jimmie went on, “the big man brings Colleton into some hiding-place in the mountains, using an aeroplane as a means of communication with the cities. His machine is spied by boys who think their own machines can go some and the race follows. The big man drops his aeroplane into a hole in the air and is killed. The Englishman who bought the stolen bag, recognizes him as the man in charge of the sick man in the stateroom. Now, if that isn’t all perfectly simple, I don’t know what is!”
“You take it for granted that Colleton is hidden in this vicinity, then?” asked Ben.
“If he wasn’t, the big man wouldn’t have shown up here!”