The man made a desperate effort to pull himself together.
‘My God!’ he gasped. ‘How did you trace me?’ Then, Tanner not replying, he went on with pitiable earnestness:
‘But you’ve made a mistake. I am innocent. I know the circumstances look bad, but I’m innocent, I swear it in God’s name.’
‘That will do,’ said Tanner not unkindly. ‘You’ll have every chance to put yourself right if you can do it. But you’ll have to come back to London with me. And for your own sake, the less you say the better.’
For a moment the idea of making a desperate resistance seemed to cross the prisoner’s mind. Then, apparently realising his hopeless position, he said quietly, ‘I’ll go with you. Let me pack my things.’
Tanner nodded, keeping a keen eye on the other’s movements for fear he would attempt suicide. But such an idea did not seem to occur to him. He dressed and packed expeditiously enough, and then said he was ready to go.
The launch was waiting, and in a few minutes they stood on the deck of the Chrysostom, homeward bound. Presently the anchor was hoisted and the vessel, swinging round, commenced her 1200 mile trip to Liverpool.
Having explained his business to the captain and seen Douglas securely locked in a cabin, Tanner stood leaning on the rail of the upper deck, watching the pleasantly situated town slip slowly astern. He could see the Cathedral of Belem standing, damaged, just as it was left by the earthquake of 1755. Then out of the mouth of the river and past the picturesque pleasure resort of Mont Estoril, with, just beyond it, the sleepy, old-world village of Cascaes till, rolling easily in the Atlantic swell, they turned northwards. The Burlings Islands, which they passed later in the day, were the last land they saw until, on the third morning, they awoke to find themselves lying in the Mersey. By midday Tanner and his prisoner were in London.
Chapter XIII.
Blackmail?
When Inspector Tanner reached his office in New Scotland Yard, he found an instruction from Chief Inspector Edgar, informing him that Mr James Daunt, of Lincoln’s Inn, had important evidence to give him relative to the Ponson case. Accordingly, after he had made a formal report on his Portuguese expedition, he called up Jimmy and arranged a meeting. A few hours later he was seated in the solicitor’s office, smoking one of the latter’s best cigars.