t John Steele came to that place in a little
trading schooner, the _Laura Deane_, of Portsmouth; that he had been
rescued from a tiny uncharted reef, or isle, on December twenty-first,
some three years before. The spot, by longitude and latitude, marks,
through an odd coincidence, the place where the _Lord Nelson_ met her
fate."

"A coincidence truly," murmured the nobleman. "But at this stage in your
reasoning you recalled that all on board were embarked in the ships'
boats and reached civilization, except possibly--"

"A few of my charges between decks? True; I remembered that. A bad lot
of ugly brutes!" Mr. Gillett paused; Lord Ronsdale raised his head. "The
story of John Steele's rescue," went on Mr. Gillett, "as told by
himself," significantly, "was well known in Tasmania and not hard to
learn. A man of splendid intellect, a lawyer by profession, he had been
passenger on a merchant vessel, the _Mary Vernon_, of Baltimore, United
States. This vessel, like the _Lord Nelson_, had come to grief; after
being tossed about, a helpless, water-logged wreck, it had finally been
abandoned. All of those in John Steele's boat had perished except him;
some had gone mad through thirst and suffering; others had killed their
fellows in a frenzy. Being of superb physique, having been through much
physical training--" the listener stirred in his chair--"he managed to
survive, to reach the little isle, where, according to his story, he
remained almost a year."

"A year? Then he set foot in Tasmania about four years after the _Lord
Nelson_ went down," observed the nobleman, a curious glitter in his
eyes. "Four years after," he repeated, accenting the last word.

"Such were the details gathered in Tasmania," answered the police agent.

"Go on," said Lord Ronsdale. "You subsequently learned with more
definiteness the actual circumstances of his rescue?"

"From the mate of the _Laura Deane_, the schooner that rescued him from
the isle, and one of her crew whom I managed to locate at Plymouth, as I
have informed your lordship by letter," answered Mr. Gillett. "These men
now furnish lodgings to seamen, and incidentally shanghai a few of them
for dubious craft! Both of them, the mate and the sailor, recalled the
man of fine bearing and education whom they found on the little isle, a
sort of Greek statue, half-clothed in rags, so to speak, who made his
personality felt at once on these simple, ignorant fellows!" Mr. Gillett
paused to lo