Edgar was amazed at what his father said, and replied:
‘I can hardly credit this story. How any man could live if washed out to sea on such a night I do not know. If it is Captain Manton, surely he would have made some sign before this. It cannot possibly be Eva’s father, for I saw him standing on the deck as the ship struck, and from the look on his face, and the way he waved farewell to me, I knew he meant to go down with her.’
‘He may have been washed out to sea, and found a spar or something to support him. I have a peculiar feeling that this man who was saved from the wreck is Manton. I have had strange dreams about him since I received the letter, and I am not a dreamer as a rule, or a superstitious man. I knew Manton well; he was a proud man, and very sensitive. If he be the man so strangely saved, I think it is precisely what he would do—to hide himself away in some lonely spot, in order to make people think him dead.’
‘But surely he would come forward and tell the story of the wreck,’ said Edgar. ‘No blame attaches to him; he did his utmost to save the ship, and went down with her when he found he could not do so. Then there is Eva. He would want to see his child again; surely he would hear that she had been saved.’
‘He may not have heard. In such a lonely spot one hears very little news from the outer world.’
‘Do you really place any faith in your mysterious correspondent’s letter?’
‘I do, Edgar, and for this reason: I feel no man would have written such a letter had he not been convinced of the truth of its contents.’
‘But why should he write to you?’ asked Edgar. ‘Wal Jessop probably told him how you saved Eva from the wreck, and it would occur to him that you might wish to know what he thought he had discovered. He no doubt wrote to me, thinking I would tell you if I thought it well to do so,’ said Robert Foster.
‘It may be as you surmise,’ said Edgar. ‘I shall never be easy in my mind until I have seen the man who wrote the letter, and heard all he has to tell.’
‘That would mean another trip to Australia,’ said his father with a smile. ‘What would Muriel say to that?’