“You said the steamer was not black the whole length of her, Dr. Phelps?” continued the vice-principal of the Tritonia, warming up still more as the investigation proceeded.
“I said so; but, if you give me any nautical conundrums, I can’t guess them,” answered the passenger, laughing.
“What color was the part of the steamer that was not black, if you please, Dr. Phelps?” asked Mr. Pelham.
“It was a kind of straw-color; possibly yellow. It was a sort of an irregular patch at the forward part of the vessel. If it had been on the roof of an old barn in the country, I should say that it had a lot of new shingles laid among the old ones,” answered the doctor.
“Precisely so! and that part of the steamer’s side near the forward part of her—and that was on her starboard bow—was the new planking of the Ville d’Angers,” exclaimed Mr. Pelham excitedly. “I would not give any one ten cents to insure my statement that the steamer towing the dismasted vessel was the Ville d’Angers!”
“It may be,” replied the principal, musing.
“I am confident I am right.”
“I think you are, Pelham,” added Mr. Fluxion, who was particularly pleased to have his hopeful theory substantiated.
“But the Ville d’Angers must have made good time, towing a wreck, to have been off Ushant when you saw her there,” suggested the principal. “It is hardly possible it was she.”
“It took us three days to make Funchal after we lost sight of the Ville d’Angers,” said Mr. Fluxion, figuring with a pencil on the back of a letter. “When did you see this steamer, Capt. Goodwin?”