“Then what does this journal mean by stating that a few days after we foregathered in this house the _Rajah_ arrived at Plymouth from Brest, in France?” “That must be a mistake, my lord. Would you let me read the item?” Schwartzbrod extended his hand, trembling slightly, and took the slip of paper, adjusting his glasses to see the better, visibly gaining time before committing himself further. “The item is very brief,” commented Stranleigh, “still, it is definite enough. ‘Steamer _Rajah_, Captain Wilkie, arrived at Plymouth from Brest.’” “That cannot have been our _Rajah_,” said Schwartzbrod at last, having collected his wits. “The captain on your steamer, my lord, is named Simmons.” “Simmons? Oh, Captain Simmons of Southampton? Why, I know the man. A fine, bluff old honest tar, one of the bulwarks of Britain. So Simmons was the captain of the _Rajah_, was he? Still, he may have resigned.” “He couldn’t resign in midocean, my lord.” “Oh, I’ve known the thing done. I’ve known captains transferred from one steamer to another on the high seas.” “I’ve never heard of such a thing, my lord, unless one vessel was disabled, and then abandoned when another came along.” “My dear Mr. Schwartzbrod, accept my assurance that these daring devils of sea captains do things once they are out of our sight which we honest men ashore would not think of countenancing.” “I thought you said just now they were the bulwarks of Britain?” “So they are, so they are, but bulwarks, Mr. Schwartzbrod, need to be made of stouter and coarser timber than that which lines the cabin. You must not think I am attributing anything criminal to our captain, Mr. Schwartzbrod; not at all, but it has often seemed to me that they do not always pay that scrupulous attention to the law which animates our business men in the city of London, for instance. A captain out of the jurisdiction of England, much as it may shock you to hear it, will dare to do things that would make our hair stand on end, and send a lawyer or a judge into a dead faint. Now, there’s the Captain Simmons, of whom you just spoke. He tells me that he has undertaken devilish deeds in out-of-the-way parts of the world which he would not think of doing under that arch in the main street of Southampton.” The company promoter moistened his lips, and stroked the lower part of his face gently with his open hand. Lord Stranleigh beamed across at him with kindly expectancy, as if wishing some sympathetic corroboration of the statements he had made. At last the city man spoke. “You have perhaps had more experience with seafaring people than I, my lord. I had always supposed them to be a rough-and-ready sort of folk, as reasonably honest as the rest of us.”