“Something? a step?”
“Yes; it is a step. I have found, or I know where to find, one of the ten men who composed that Marais des Cygnes party.”
“Good! I call that more than a step.”
“I may as well tell you that I have worked through a ’tracker.’ You know how much I am interested in that other affair.”
“The Sailor business? yes.”
“It seemed to me,” continued Vernet, “that I might succeed there by doing the hard work myself, and that this other matter, in its present stage, might be worked out by an intelligent ’inquirer.’ So I adopted this plan. I think my murder case is almost closed. I hope to have my hand upon the fellow soon. Then I can give all my time to this other case.”
“So!” gazing admiringly at the handsome face opposite him. “I’m glad of your success, Van. I suppose, at the right time, you will let me into the ‘true inwardness’ of the Sailor business?”
“I should have been under obligation to do that long ago, if you had not been so good as to leave it all to my discretion.”
“True. Well, I find that it’s not unsafe to leave these things to you and Stanhope. You both work best untrammelled. Has this fellow given you much trouble?”
Vernet smiled. “Plenty of it,” he said. “But in playing his last trick, he bungled. He had dodged me beautifully, and had left me under the impression that he had sailed for Europe.”