Joseph Stagg looked across the room at Miss Amanda, but he listened to the sailor. Benjamin Hardy had plainly thought much about the incidents surrounding the loss of the _Dunraven_. Perhaps, as time passed, and he saw those incidents in better perspective, his wondering about them had evolved theories. Whether these theories were to be accepted without suspicion was another matter. Joseph Stagg was not a credulous man. Indeed, he was, in a business sense, suspicious. Mr. Parlow had said that Joe Stagg bit every quarter he took in over his counter to find out whether it was lead or silver! The hardware dealer listened now to the sailor’s rather wandering tale with more patience than interest. Indeed, it was as much out of politeness to Miss Amanda as anything that kept him from interrupting. “It was the current confused us. The purser had a sea anchor out,” said Benjamin Hardy. “Something like a drag, mister. Kept his boat from driftin’. And that’s how us in the first officer’s boat come nigh smashin’ into him. There’s a strong set of the current towards the African coast in them parts. “Well, sir, after the two boats come so nigh smashin’ into each other, the purser must have slipped his drag. Anyway, the fog come up thick from the south and hid their lights from us. We never heard no cry, nor nothin’. Then, after day-break, the French battleships that had stood by picked us up, but we couldn’t find the purser’s boat. “The fog still lay as thick as a blanket to the so’th’ard—how thick and how far we didn’t know. And the Frenchman, I reckon, was afraid it might hide more of the enemy, and she was crippled. No, sir, if the purser’s boat had drifted off that way—and the set of the tide was that way, I know—we couldn’t have seen nor heard her if she was more’n a mile off.” “And were Hannah—were my sister and her husband in that boat?” queried Mr. Stagg thoughtfully. “I am sure, by the details Benjamin has given me,” said Miss Amanda softly, “that your sister and Mr. Cameron were two of its passengers.” “Well, it’s a long time ago, now,” said the hardware dealer. “Surely, if they had been picked up or had reached the coast of Africa, we would have heard about it.” “It would seem so,” the woman agreed gently. “You never know what may happen at sea, mister, till it happens,” Benjamin Hardy declared. “What became of that boat——” He seemed to stick to that idea. But the possibility of the small boat’s having escaped seemed utterly preposterous to Mr. Stagg. He arose to depart. “Of course, you won’t say anything to the child to disturb her mind,” he said. “Poor little thing! It’s hard enough for her as it is.” “I’ll keep my jaws clamped shut like a clam, mister,” declared the sailor. Miss Amanda followed the hardware dealer to the outer door. She hesitated to speak, yet Mr. Stagg’s unhappy face won an observation from her. “Oh, don’t you suppose there is _any_ chance of their being alive?” she whispered.