"No mention of Todham Todd?"
"Not that I can find."
Joe took one of the other clippings and the boys perused them diligently, seeking some mention of the missing college professor.
All the clippings were devoted to various lectures that had been given by various speakers in different parts of the country within recent months.
"Looks as if he was a lecturer, or had some interest in lectures, at any rate," Joe commented.
Patiently, they examined clipping after clipping, but in none of them did they find any mention of Todham Todd. A further search of the cupboard, however, revealed a veritable mass of papers, and the boys settled down to a thorough study of them.
"He's a queer kind of sailor, that's sure," declared Frank. "I never heard of a sailor who collected clippings about lectures."
The other papers were similar clippings, as well as typewritten documents. When the boys examined these documents in the hope of finding some clue to the former activities of Captain Royal, they found that they were manuscripts of lectures on philosophy and other topics. But still they found no mention of the name of Todham Todd.
"Well, whether he's mentioned in these papers or not, I'm sure that Captain Royal and Todham Todd are the same man," observed Joe. "No sailor would ever carry all this stuff around with him."
"It certainly looks peculiar," his brother agreed. "But there are some more papers yet. We'll look through them all. If he is Todham Todd it's hardly likely that he would carry clippings about other men's lectures and none of his own."