"What did I tell you last night about 'em all being on?" said Keller. "A
message comes with no name on it, and yet they know right where to send
it. And, say, did you get a flash at the look on that steward's face?
Somebody's been telling that guy something too."
He opened the brown envelope and glanced at the small sheet that it
contained. "The London officer will meet us at Liverpool," he said, as
he crumpled the paper and tossed it aside. "We land at the other place
first, don't we--Fishhawk, or whatever its name is?"
"Fishguard," Bronston told him. "Or rather, we stop off Fishguard, and
tenders come out to meet us and to take off mail and passengers. Then
the ship goes on to Liverpool."
"Good enough," said Keller. "You and me will stay right here in this
stateroom until we get to Liverpool; that'll be some time to-morrow,
won't it?"
"To-morrow afternoon, probably," said Bronston. He went back to his
writing, whistling a little tune to himself.
The precaution of the overcareful Keller proved unnecessary, because in
the morning word was brought by the bathroom steward that a notice had
just been posted in the gangway opposite the purser's desk announcing
that because of the roughness of the channel the liner would proceed
straight to Liverpool without stopping off Fishguard at all.
Nevertheless, the detective kept the stateroom door locked. With land
in sight he was taking no chances at all.
Since their stateroom was on the port side and the hills of Wales stood
up out of the sea upon the other side, they saw nothing of Fishguard as
the _Mesopotamia_ steamed on up the choppy channel. Mainly they both
were silent; each was busy with his own thoughts and speculations.
Hampered in their movements by the narrow confines of their quarters
they packed their large bags and their small ones, packing them with
care and circumspection, the better to kill the time that hung upon
their hands. Finally Bronston, becoming dissatisfied with his own
bestowal of his belongings, called in the handy Lawrence to do the job
all over again for him.
As the shifting view through their porthole presently told them, they
left the broad channel for the twistywise river. The lightships which
dot the Mersey above its mouth, like street-lamps along a street, were
sliding by when Lawrence knocked upon the door to ask if the luggage was
ready for shore. He was told to return in a few minutes; but instead of
going away he waited outside in the little corridor.
"Well," said Keller, "I guess we'd better be getting up on deck, hadn't
we?" He glanced sidewise at the shiny steel cuffs, which he had fished
out from an ulster pocket and which lay upon the rumpled covers of his
bed. Alongside them was the key of the door.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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