"She used pretty good English when she talked with me."
"That's because she has passed most of her life in the United States, while her father has been engaged in questionable work all over the high seas."
"She said she was your niece, that her mamma was Sadie Harris, and that she had come to New Orleans as soon as she heard that you were sick."
The captain smiled grimly.
"Sixty told her what to say," he answered.
"But," and Matt's surprise took another tack, "how do you happen to know that she called on me at the hotel?"
"Clackett found that out. I sent him to the hotel to ask you and your chums to come to Stuyvesant Dock and board the Grampus. Cassidy was to bring the submarine down from Westwego. But let's begin at the beginning and get at this thing with some sort of system."
Matt led off with an account of the mixed messages, following this with a description of the girl and of what had transpired during their interview, and then finishing with what had taken place on the steamer.
The captain, although he kept the binoculars sweeping the sea, was absorbed in the recital.
"What name was signed to that message that fell into your hands by mistake?" he asked.