e aroma of dead menhaden, and
walked to the _Morning Record_ office.

Duke Barrows, a veteran newspaperman but young in years, greeted them
cordially. "Hello, Rick, Scotty. Here are those cards you asked for."
He swiveled his chair around and regarded them with interested eyes.
"Getting anywhere on that Seaford yarn?"

"We're still feeling around," Rick replied. "But there's a good story
in it if we can find the lead."

"Keep working then," Duke said. "I'll pay you space rates if it hits
page one."

"How much is that?" Scotty wanted to know.

"Twenty-five cents a column inch on this sheet. You didn't expect to
get rich, did you?"

Rick returned Duke's grin. "If this story is as good as I think it is,
we'll just about get rich. You'll want to cover the whole front page
with it."

"Can't be that good," Duke returned.

Rick looked around the office. "Where's Jerry?"

"In the composing room. He'll be back in a minute. Got anything on
your mind?"

"Just an idea. Do you keep a file of New York papers?"

"Over there. On the shelf. Help yourself."

Rick nodded his thanks. "Let's go give my idea a try, Scotty."

Scotty tucked his press card into his wallet. "I could probably help
if I knew what the idea was."

Rick explained briefly. He wanted to check the shipping sections for
the dates when the _Albatross_ had been seen at Creek House. He
particularly wanted to know what ships had arrived at New York at noon
or before on those dates. He was interested in ships arriving from
southern ports in the Caribbean, or from southern Europe. That, he
figured, would give them only the ships that might have been standing
off Seaford in the early hours before dawn on the critical dates. He
had a vague idea that he might find some sort of similarity in the
ships that had been off Seaford on the critical dates. The registry
might be the same, or the ownership.

But when the compilation was complete, there were no similarities at
all. In fact, so far as he could determine, no ship had been off
Seaford during the time he had chosen as having the best
possibilities.

As they walked toward the Whiteside boat landing after saying good
night to Duke and Jerry, Rick rapidly reviewed all they knew about the
wreck of Tom Tyler's trawler and the events at Seaford.

"I sure thought I had the connecting link," he said. "I still think
so, even if there wasn't any evidence in the papers. It's the only
answer that makes any sense."