"Oh," cried the young man, wonderfully surprised, "and do you mean to say that Kind obeyed them?" Kyles pointed to the telegram. "That proves it." Ritson picked up the wire and looked at the time. "You got this before the news came to Trent," he said sharply. "Oh," remarked the Captain smiling, "so the police have been informed already. I told Kind to let them know in London, guessing that the news would be at once forwarded to Tarhaven. My only regret is that Pope Narby should have escaped. But we can't foresee everything." "Aye," remarked Gowrie waving his pipe, "what says glorious Robbie? 'The best laid plans o' mice an' men Gang then wrang.' "I'm nae varra sure o' the context, but there's the sense for ye." Herries passed a bewildered hand across his brow. "I don't quite understand," he observed. "Is Pope Narby the guilty person?" "Oh, I don't say that," replied the Captain, agreeably. "It's his limmer o' a mither," cried Gowrie. "What!" cried Ritson, jumping up with an activity surprising in so elderly a lawyer. "Did she----?" "Here!" interrupted Kyles impatiently, "we'll never get on at this rate. Mr. Gowrie, you had better tell what happened at the 'Marsh Inn' and I'll take up the story when your knowledge fails." Gowrie smiled graciously, asking nothing better than to be the central figure in the conversation. The three men listened attentively, but the two women, still glaring at one another, gave but a careless ear to the tale, told in the old tutor's best style and in his best English. "For the beenefit o' the lawyer body," explained Gowrie, nodding towards Ritson, "him being unacquaint wi' the tongue o' Auld Reekie. But baith ye laddies," he indicated Herries and Kyles respectively, "ken well the vernacular ye sooked in wi' yer mither's milk as it micht be." "Get on, get on," cried Kyles looking at his watch, "we have not much time. I have steam up, and we lift anchor before midnight." Ritson smiled to himself, thinking that before midnight Captain Kyles would probably find himself in Tarhaven prison. However, as Gowrie was speaking, he gave his attention to the story, and it astonished him not a little. The sage related all that had taken place at the inn since his arrival there, and described with indignation how he had been kidnapped while searching for the box buried by Mrs. Narby. In the midst of his diatribes, the Captain cut him short.