Nikola, myself. I had had four opportunities afforded me of
judging of his cleverness--once in the restaurant off Oxford Street,
once in the _Green Sailor_ public-house in the East India Dock Road,
once in the West of England express, and lastly, in the house in Port
Said. I had no desire, therefore, to come to close quarters with him
again.

Arriving in Melbourne we caught the afternoon express for Sydney,
reaching that city the following morning a little after breakfast. By
the time we had arrived at our destination we had held many
consultations over our future, and the result was a decision to look for
a quiet hotel on the outskirts of the city, and then to attempt to
discover what the mystery, in which we had been so deeply involved,
might mean. The merits of all the various suburbs were severally
discussed, though I knew but little about them, and the Marquis less.
Paramatta, Penrith, Woolahra, Balmain, and even many of the bays and
harbours, received attention, until we decided on the last named as the
most likely place to answer our purpose.

This settled, we crossed Darling harbour, and, after a little hunting
about, discovered a small but comfortable hotel situated in a side
street, called the _General Officer_. Here we booked rooms, deposited
our meagre baggage, and having installed ourselves, sat down and
discussed the situation.

"So this is Sydney," said Beckenham, stretching himself out comfortably
upon the sofa as he spoke. "And now that we've got here, what's to be
done first?"

"Have lunch," I answered promptly.

"And then?" he continued.

"Hunt up the public library and take a glimpse of the _Morning Herald's_
back numbers. They will tell us a good deal, though not all we want to
know. Then we'll make a few inquiries. To-morrow morning I shall ask you
to excuse me for a couple of hours. But in the afternoon we ought to
have acquired sufficient information to enable us to make a definite
start."

"Then let's have lunch at once and be off. I'm all eagerness to get to
work."

We accordingly ordered lunch, and, when it was finished, set off in
search of a public library. Having found it--and it was not a very
difficult matter--we sought the reading room and made for a stand of
_Sydney Morning Heralds_ in the corner. Somehow I felt as certain of
finding what I wanted there as any man could possibly be, and as it
happened I was not disappointed. On the second page, beneath a heading
in bold type