The stolid detective, however, quickly recovered himself, and his first words were—
"Did Mr. Brett fully understand my signal?"
"I think so," said the other; "but he will tell you all about that afterwards. At present he wishes you to ascertain Gros Jean's intended residence."
Mr. Winter smiled with the peculiar air of superiority affected by Scotland Yard.
"Oh, that is too easy," he condescended to explain. "I have been talking to him."
"You don't say so!"
"Yes, I have. My French is bad, and his English is worse, but he understands that I am in the wholesale grocery trade. I have come to Palermo to buy currants!"
"Most extraordinary! How very clever of you!"
Mr. Winter drew himself up with an air of professional pride.
"That is nothing, sir," he said. "We often make queer acquaintanceships in the way of business. But Gros Jean is a smart chap. He eyed me curiously when he happened to hear that I was the fifth passenger who wished to leave the steamer at Messina, so I took the bull by the horns and made myself useful to him in the matter of getting his baggage out of the hold."