ttlement in the city
in 1899. People in the same line of business were questioned closely;
and those who knew anything of him at all clung to the idea that he
was an American who had lived for many years abroad.

"'So we had another look at the old passenger lists of the steamships;
but this time we went further back. We knew that the simple ruse of a
fictitious name would cover Hume completely; but it seemed the only
thing to do, and we set at it systematically. In the records of the
steamer _Baltic_ of the Netherlands Steamship Company for the year
1897, we came upon the name of "D. Purtell." Without much hope of
learning anything definite after such a lapse of time, I inquired
after this passenger.

"'Luck was with us in the shape of an old clerk with a long memory. He
faintly recalled something of the man, and after some talk got out
still another book. And there it was! D. Purtell, so it seemed, had
been involved in an attempt to smuggle a quantity of diamonds.

"'Our next step was to visit the customs people. Their records were
very complete. They even had a portrait of Purtell, which proved him
to have been Hume beyond a doubt. Only a trifle of evidence had been
secured against him--not enough to convict--and they were forced to
release him. This seems to have been Hume's specialty.

"'However, through the customs services of other countries, they had
learned quite a lot about him. The authorities of Holland, Spain and
France knew him as one of the leading spirits in a system of smuggling
that had been going on for years. Once Hume had been located in
Antwerp, once at Hamburg, and for a long time at Bayonne. This system
of contraband had been broken up just before he had been arrested by
the United States service. A number of the criminals had been
convicted; but Hume, with his usual luck, had escaped once more,
because of lack of evidence against him.

"'Nothing could be learned of the movements of Hume between his arrest
on the _Baltic_ and his location here as a dealer in the curiosities
of art. And after his going into business here, he kept to himself a
great deal.

"'But the drink habit caused him to frequent certain resorts, and it
was at one of these that he first met Richard Morris, father to Allan
Morris!'"

"Ah!" said Pendleton. "So Hume knew Morris's father."

"I asked Fuller, in giving him his instructions, to have this fact
established, if he could," said Ashton-Kirk. "That both Hume and t