‘He was a man of about middle height, rather slightly and elegantly built. He was foreign-looking, French, I should say, or even Spanish, with dark eyes and complexion, and black hair. He wore a short, pointed beard. He was dressed in blue clothes of good quality, with a dark-green or brown Homburg hat, and black shoes with light spats. I did not observe his collar and tie specially, but he gave me the impression of being well-dressed in such matters of detail. He wore a ring with some kind of stone on the little finger of his left hand.’ The two plain clothes men had listened attentively to the description, and they and the Inspector conversed in low tones for a few moments, when silence fell on the party. They stopped opposite the _Bullfinch’s_ berth and Broughton led the way down. ‘There she is,’ he pointed, ‘if we go to that gangway we can get down direct to the forehold.’ The two plain-clothes men had also alighted and the five walked in the direction indicated. They crossed the gangway and, approaching the hatchway, looked down into the hold. ‘There’s where it is,’ began Broughton, pointing down, and then suddenly stopped. The others stepped forward and looked down. The hold was empty. Harkness and the cask were gone! CHAPTER II INSPECTOR BURNLEY ON THE TRACK The immediate suggestion was, of course, that Harkness had had the cask moved to some other place for safety, and this they set themselves to find out. ‘Get hold of the gang that were unloading this hold,’ said the Inspector. Broughton darted off and brought up a stevedore’s foreman, from whom they learned that the forehold had been emptied some ten minutes earlier, the men having waited to complete it and then gone for dinner. ‘Where do they get their dinner? Can we get hold of them now?’ asked Mr. Avery. ‘Some of them, sir, I think. Most of them go out into the city, but some use the night watchman’s room where there is a fire.’ ‘Let’s go and see,’ said the Inspector, and headed by the foreman they walked some hundred yards along the quay to a small brick building set apart from the warehouses, inside and in front of which sat a number of men, some eating from steaming cans, others smoking short pipes. ‘Any o’ you boys on the _Bullfinch’s_ lower forehold?’ asked the foreman, ‘if so, boss wants you ’alf a sec.’ Three of the men got up slowly and came forward. ‘We want to know, men,’ said the managing director, ‘if you can tell us anything about Harkness and a damaged cask. He was to wait with it till we got down.’ ‘Well, he’s gone with it,’ said one of the men, ‘lessn’ ’alf an hour ago.’ ‘Gone with it?’ ‘Yes. Some toff in blue clothes an’ a black beard came up an’ give ’im a paper, an’ when ’e’d read it ’e calls out an’ sez, sez ’e, ‘’Elp me swing out this ’ere cask,’ ’e says. We ’elps ’im, an’ ’e puts it on a ’orse dray--a four-wheeler. An’ then they all goes off, ’im an’ the cove in the blue togs walkin’ together after the dray.’