“Judging from all the facts taken together,” replied Thorndyke, “I should say that it is lying close to the base of the rock on the east side. We have it from Varney that the yacht drifted down towards the rock during the fog, and I gathered that she drifted past close to the east side. Then we also learned from him that the jib had then come down, which was, in fact, the cause of her being adrift. But the blood-stains on the sail prove that the tragedy occurred either before the halyard broke or while the sail was down—almost certainly the latter. And we may take it that it occurred during the fog; that the fog created the opportunity, for we must remember that they were close to the lighthouse, and therefore—apart from the fog—easily within sight of it. For the same reason we may assume that the body was put overboard before the fog lifted. All these circumstances point to the body being quite close to the rock; and the worm-tube emphatically confirms that inference.”
“Then,” said Phillip, “in that case there is no great point in taking soundings.”
“Not in the first instance,” Thorndyke agreed. “But if we get no result close to the rock, we may have to sample the bottom to see how far from the base the conditions indicated by the worm-tube extend.”
They walked on in silence for some time. Presently Rodney remarked: “This reminds me of the last time I came down to a rendezvous on Penzance pier, when I expected to find Varney waiting for me and he wasn’t there. I wonder where he was, by the way.”
“He had probably gone to post a letter to Mr. Penfield at some remote pillar-box where collections were not too frequent,” said Thorndyke.
Rodney looked at him quickly, once more astonished at his intimate knowledge of the details of the case. He was about to remark on it when Thorndyke asked:
“Have you seen much of Varney lately?”
“I haven’t seen him at all,” replied Rodney. “Have you, Phil?”
“No,” replied Phillip; “not for quite a long time. Which is rather odd, for he used to look in at Maggie’s flat pretty often to have tea and show her his latest work. But he hasn’t been there for weeks, I know, because I was speaking to her about him only a day or two ago. She seemed to have an idea that he might have gone away on a sketching tour, though I don’t think she had anything to go on.”
“He can’t have smelt a rat and cleared out,” mused Rodney. “I don’t see how he could, though I shouldn’t be altogether sorry if he had. It will be a horrid business when we have to charge him and give evidence against him. But it isn’t possible that he can have seen or heard anything.”