"But what IS in the box you brought here then, Lady Agatha? Two boxes were shipped to Newark, addressed to me. Which one did you get? What is really in the one you have been carrying around? My plum preserves, or----" She shuddered and left the sentence unfinished. "Let us open it," said Cleggett. "No! No!" cried Lady Agatha. "Clement, no! I could not bear to have it opened." Miss Pringle rose. It was evident that a bit of her earlier suspicion had returned. "After all," said Miss Pringle, indicating the letter again, "how do I know that----" "That it is not a forgery?" said Lady Agatha. "I see." She mused a moment, and then said, with a sigh, "Well, then, let us open the box!" "I think it best, Agatha," said Cleggett. "I shall have it brought down." But even as he turned upon his heel to go on deck and give the order, Dr. Farnsworth and the Rev. Simeon Calthrop ran excitedly down the cabin companionway. "The box of Reginald Maltravers," cried the Doctor, who was in Cleggett's confidence, "is gone!" CHAPTER XIX TWO GREAT MEN MEET "Gone!" Lady Agatha, who had emerged from her stateroom, turned pale and caught at her heart. They rushed on deck. The young Doctor was right; the box, which had stood on the larboard side of the cabin, had disappeared. "It might have been blown into the canal during the storm," suggested the Rev. Mr. Calthrop. All of the crew of the Jasper B. knew Lady Agatha's story, and were aware of the importance of the box. "It was on the lee side of the cabin," objected Dr. Farnsworth, "and while it might have been blown flat to the deck, in spite of its protected position, it would scarcely have been picked up by the wind again and wafted over the port bulwarks." "If you was to ask me," said Cap'n Abernethy, who had joined in the discussion, "I'd give it as MY opinion it's a good riddance of bad rubbish." "Rubbish?" said Miss Pringle. "Rubbish, indeed! I am confident that that box contained my plum preserves!" "It has been stolen!" cried Cleggett, with conviction. "Fool that I was, not to have taken it into the cabin!" "But, if you had, you know," said Lady Agatha, "one would scarcely have cared to stay in there with it." "Loge has outgeneraled me," murmured Cleggett, well-nigh frantic with self-reproach. "While he made the attack in front, he sent some of his men to the rear of the vessel and it was quietly made off with while we were fighting." Had the disappearance of the box concerned himself alone Cleggett's sense of disaster might have been less poignant. But the thought that his own carelessness had enabled the enemy to get possession of a thing likely to involve Lady Agatha in further trouble was nearly insupportable. He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands in impotent rage.