f Bielby. Thus encouraged, he told, as clearly and fully as possible,
the tale of the disappearance of Margaret, and of his entire failure
even to come upon her traces or those of her companion.

"And you have heard nothing since your illness?"

"Nothing to any purpose. What do you advise me to do?"

"There is only one thing certain, to my mind," said Barton. "The
seafaring man with whom Shields was drinking on the last night of his
life, and the gentleman in the fur travelling-coat who sent the telegram
in your name and took away Margaret from Miss Marlett's, are in the same
employment, or, by George, are probably the same person. Now, have you
any kind of suspicion who they or he may be? or can you suggest any way
of tracking him or them?"

"No," said Maitland; "my mind is a perfect blank on the subject. I never
heard of the sailor till the woman at the _Hit or Miss_ mentioned him,
the night the body was found. And I never heard of a friend of Shields',
a friend who was a gentleman, till I went down to the school."

"Then all we can do at present is, _not_ to set the police at work--they
would only prevent the man from showing--but to find out whether anyone
answering to the description is 'wanted' or is on their books, at
Scotland Yard. Why are we not in Paris, where a man, whatever his social
position might be, who was capable of that unusual form of crime, would
certainly have his _dossier_? They order these things better in France."

"There is just one thing about him, at least about the man who was
drinking with poor Shields on the night of his death. He was almost
certainly tattooed with some marks or other. Indeed, I remember Mrs.
Gullick--that's the landlady of the _Hit or Miss_--saying that Shields
had been occupied in tattooing him. He did a good deal in that way for
sailors."

"By Jove," said Barton, "if any fellow understands tattooing, and the
class of jail-birds who practise it, I do. It is a clew after a fashion;
but, after all, many of them that go down to the sea in ships are
tattooed, even when they are decent fellows; and besides, we seldom, in
our stage of society, get a view of a fellow-creature with nothing on
but these early decorative designs."

This was only too obvious, and rather damping to Maitland, who for a
moment had been inclined to congratulate himself on his _flair_ as a
detective.

CHAPTER VIII.--The Jaffa Oranges.

"Letting _I dare not_ wait upon _I would_."

Of a