"The diamonds are all right?" asked the pawnbroker, rather nervously. "Quite right. I see the man has been here. I don't want to know anything about the jewels: they're his own, and it's not them we're after. I want to know about _him_. He's been here, I see—the question is, what time?" "Not above half an hour ago. A man in a dark blue coat with a fur collar——" "Yes; a man that walks lame." The pawnbroker shook his head. "I didn't see that he was lame," he said. "Ah, you didn't notice; or he might hide it just while he was in here. He sat down, I suppose?" "Yes; he was sitting all the time." "Of course. Thank you; that'll do." With this Mr. Carter departed, much to the relief of the money-lender. The detective looked at his watch, and found that it was half-past one. At half-past three there was a London train to start from the station on the Lincolnshire side of the water. The other station was safe so long as Mr. Tibbles remained on the watch there; so for two hours Mr. Carter was free to look about him. He went down to the quay, and ascertained that no boat had crossed to the Lincolnshire side of the river within the last hour. Joseph Wilmot was therefore safe on the Yorkshire side; but if so, where was he? A man wearing a dark blue coat lined with sable, and walking very lame, must be a conspicuous object wherever he went; and yet Mr. Carter, with all the aid of his experience in the detective line, could find no clue to the whereabouts of the man he wanted. He spent an hour and a half in walking about the streets, prying into all manner of dingy little bars and tap-rooms, in narrow back streets and down by the water-side; and then was fain to go across to Lincolnshire once more, and watch the departure of the train. Before crossing the river to do this, he had taken stock of the _Crow_ and her master, and had seen the captain lying in exactly the same attitude as before, smoking a dirty black pipe in his sleep. Mr. Carter made a furtive inspection of every creature who went by the up-train, and saw that conveyance safely off before he turned to leave the station. After doing this he lost no time in re-crossing the water again, and landed on the Yorkshire side of the Humber as the clocks of Hull were striking four.