That last item, the letters "ig," with a flourish under the g, was the most significant part of his discovery.
The letter had been signed with the lady's pet name, "Pig," and Faunce told himself that to only one man would she have so signed herself—the lover who had called her by that name at the Mecca Hotel, and whose playful invention was doubtless responsible for the endearing sobriquet.
"She told me she did not know whether he sailed from Southampton or Liverpool," mused Faunce, "yet here, under my hand, is the evidence that she asked him to meet her at Southampton West."
He went to Southampton next day, and called at the office of the American Line. If Colonel Rannock had carried out his intention there must be some record of his passage to New York.
There was such a record, and a startling one, for it proved that he had not gone to America by the ship in which he meant to sail.
After some difficulty, and being referred from one clerk to another, Faunce found the young man who had booked Colonel Rannock's passage in the Boston on Friday, March 29, the evening before she sailed.
"He came after seven o'clock, when the office was shut," said the clerk. "I was at work here, and as he made a great point of it I booked his berth for him. He suffered for having left it till the eleventh hour, for there were only two berths vacant—the two worst on the ship. He grumbled a good deal, but took one of them, paid the passage money, and left his cabin trunk to be sent on board next morning. And from that day to this we have never heard of him. He gave us no address, but we have his trunk, and we hold the cash to his credit, and I suppose he'll claim it from us sooner or later."
"Was he alone?"
"He was alone when he came into the office, but there was some one waiting for him in a cab outside, and I believe the some one was a lady. He spoke to her as he came in at the door, and I heard her answer him. 'Don't be all night about it, Dick,' she said."
"Thank you," said Faunce. "His friends are getting anxious about him, but, for all that, I dare say he's safe enough, and he'll call upon you for that passage money before long."