While they had been talking, the evening had closed in and the workshop was now almost in darkness. It being too late for the brothers to carry out the business that had brought them to the wharf, even if they had been in a state of mind suitable to the checking of inventories, they postponed the survey to a later date, locked up the workshop, and, in company with Thorndyke, made their way homeward.
Chapter XVII.
In Which There Is a Meeting and a Farewell
It was quite early on a bright morning at the beginning of April when Thorndyke and the two Rodneys took their way from their hotel towards the harbour of Penzance. Phillip had been in the town for a day or two, completing the arrangements for the voyage of exploration; the other two had come down from London only on the preceding evening.
“I hope the skipper will be punctual,” said Phillip. “I told him to meet us on the pier at eight o’clock, sharp. We want to get off as early as possible, for it is a longish run out to the rock and we may have to make a long day of it.”
“We probably shall,” said Rodney. “The Wolf Rock is a good departure for purposes of navigation, but when it comes to finding a spot of sea-bottom only a foot or two in extent, our landmark isn’t very exact. It will take us a good many hours to search the whole area.”
“I wonder,” said Thorndyke, “what took them out there. According to Varney’s description, and the evidence of the button, they must have had the rock close aboard. But it was a good deal out of their way from Sennen to Penzance.”
“It was,” agreed Phillip. “But you can’t make a bee-line in a sailing craft. That’s why I chartered a motor boat for this job. Under canvas, you can only keep as near to your course as the wind will let you. But Purcell was a deuce of a fellow for sea-room. He always liked to keep a good offing. I remember that on that occasion he headed straight out to sea and got well outside the Longships before he turned south. I watched the yacht from the shore and wondered how much longer he was going to hold on. It looked as if he were heading for America. Then, you remember, the fog came down and they may have lost their bearings a bit; and the tides are pretty strong about here.”
“Yes,” said Thorndyke, “and as we may take it that the trouble—whatever it was—came to a head while they were enveloped in fog, it is likely that the yacht was left to take care of herself for a time and may have drifted a good deal off her course. At any rate it is clear that at one time she had the rock right under her lee and must have drifted past within a few feet.”
“It would have been a quaint position,” said Phillip, “if she had bumped onto it and gone to the bottom. Then they would have kept one another company in Davy Jones’s locker.”
“It would have saved a lot of trouble if they had gone down together,” his brother remarked. “But, from what you have just said, Thorndyke, it seems that you have a more definite idea as to the position of the body than I thought. Where do you suppose it to be?”