The immediate suggestion was, of course, that Harkness had had the cask moved to some other place for safety, and this they set themselves to find out.
‘Get hold of the gang that were unloading this hold,’ said the Inspector.
Broughton darted off and brought up a stevedore’s foreman, from whom they learned that the forehold had been emptied some ten minutes earlier, the men having waited to complete it and then gone for dinner.
‘Where do they get their dinner? Can we get hold of them now?’ asked Mr. Avery.
‘Some of them, sir, I think. Most of them go out into the city, but some use the night watchman’s room where there is a fire.’
‘Let’s go and see,’ said the Inspector, and headed by the foreman they walked some hundred yards along the quay to a small brick building set apart from the warehouses, inside and in front of which sat a number of men, some eating from steaming cans, others smoking short pipes.
‘Any o’ you boys on the Bullfinch’s lower forehold?’ asked the foreman, ‘if so, boss wants you ’alf a sec.’
Three of the men got up slowly and came forward.
‘We want to know, men,’ said the managing director, ‘if you can tell us anything about Harkness and a damaged cask. He was to wait with it till we got down.’
‘Well, he’s gone with it,’ said one of the men, ‘lessn’ ’alf an hour ago.’