“He opened fire on a French frigate off Tahiti which was boring holes in an opium smuggler.”
Mostyn laughed. “Of course; and how like Ted it was—an instinct to side with the weakest.”
“Yes, coupled with the fact that the Frenchman’s act was mere brutality, and had not sufficient motive or justification. So Ted pitched into him.”
“Did the smuggler fly the British flag?”
“No, the American; and it was only the intervention of the United States which prevented serious international trouble. Out of the affair came Ted a shipwreck.”
“Have you never got on his track?”
“Once I thought I had at Singapore, but nothing came of it. No doubt he changed his name. He never asked for, never got, the legacy my poor father left him.”
“What was it made you think you had come across him at Singapore?”
“Oh, certain significant things.”
“What was he doing?”