"Yes, it's me," said Walsh, who, it will be remembered, was the second engineer, to whom Hughie had recently been acting as deputy. "I should have come on duty at eight bells to relieve Angus, but I slept right through everything till Mr. Marrable found me in my bunk an hour or two ago. I expect they put something in my grog last night." "It's quite a hobby of theirs," said Allerton drily. "Mr. Marrable, I have found something that may be useful to us." He handed his superior officer a damp but undamaged little packet of papers. "Where did you find them?" asked Hughie. "I thought I had gone through Kingdom's kit pretty thoroughly." "They were sticking in the falls of the davits belonging to the boat Kingdom went off in," replied Allerton. "I saw him hurrying along the deck from his cabin just before his departure, carrying the log-book and some papers and instruments. I expect he dropped these as he went over the side." "Sit down, everybody," said the commander, "we'll see this through. It may concern us all." The packet contained two letters, together with some invoices and bills of lading referring chiefly to the Orinoco's cargo of astringent claret. Hughie glanced through the letters. Then he re-read them with some deliberation. Then he whistled low and expressively. Then he sat up and sighed, gently and contentedly. "Mr. Noddy Kinahan," he said, "is shortly going to wish, with all his benevolent and philanthropic little heart, that he had never been born. And we are the people that are going to make him wish. Listen!" He read the two letters aloud. They were brief, but explicit. One contained Kinahan's orders to Kingdom as to the disposal of the Orinoco. The other was a sort of invoice, or consignment note, relating to the person of one Marrable, who had apparently been shipped on board the night before the ship sailed. Each of these documents, it may be added, contained sufficient matter to ensure penal servitude for their author. Hughie stopped reading, and there was a long and appreciative silence. Then Allerton said:-- "What beats me is to understand how Kinahan could have been such a mug as to commit these schemes to paper, and how Kingdom should have been such a fool as to want to keep them. _I'd_ have let them go down in the Orinoco."