'Yes, sir.'
'Well, captain, is there anything else you have to tell me? I think you will find it better in the end to make a clean breast of it.'
The captain hesitated, turning his cap about in his hands for a few moments, then he said,—
'I am not sure that the first passenger went overboard of his own accord. When the police hailed us at Denouval—'
'Ah, you knew it was the police, then?'
'I was afraid after I left it might have been. You see, when the bargain was made with me the American said that if I reached Havre at a certain time a thousand francs extra would be paid to me, so I was anxious to get along as quickly as I could. I told him it was dangerous to navigate the Seine at night, but he paid me well for attempting it. After the policeman called to us at Denouval the man with the small box became very much excited, and asked me to put him ashore, which I refused to do. The tall man appeared to be watching him, never letting him get far away. When I heard the splash in the water I ran aft, and I saw the tall man putting the box which the other had held into his handbag, although I said nothing of it at the time. We cruised back and forward about the spot where the other man had gone overboard, but saw nothing more of him. Then I came on to Meulan, intending to give information about what I had seen. That is all I know of the matter, sir.'
'Was the man who had the jewels a Frenchman?'
'What jewels, sir?'
'The man with the small box.'
'Oh, yes, sir; he was French.'