would scarcely have been picked up by the wind
again and wafted over the port bulwarks."

"If you was to ask me," said Cap'n Abernethy, who had joined in the
discussion, "I'd give it as MY opinion it's a good riddance of bad
rubbish."

"Rubbish?" said Miss Pringle. "Rubbish, indeed! I am confident that
that box contained my plum preserves!"

"It has been stolen!" cried Cleggett, with conviction. "Fool that I
was, not to have taken it into the cabin!"

"But, if you had, you know," said Lady Agatha, "one would scarcely have
cared to stay in there with it."

"Loge has outgeneraled me," murmured Cleggett, well-nigh frantic with
self-reproach. "While he made the attack in front, he sent some of his
men to the rear of the vessel and it was quietly made off with while we
were fighting." Had the disappearance of the box concerned himself
alone Cleggett's sense of disaster might have been less poignant. But
the thought that his own carelessness had enabled the enemy to get
possession of a thing likely to involve Lady Agatha in further trouble
was nearly insupportable. He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands
in impotent rage.

"No doubt Loge caught sight of it during the early part of the
skirmish, by a flash of lightning," said Dr. Farnsworth, "and acted as
you suggest, Mr. Cleggett. But does he believe it to be the box which
contains the evidence against him? Or can he, by any chance, be aware
of its real contents?"

"No matter which," groaned Cleggett, "no matter which! For when he
opens it, he will learn what is in it. Don't you see that he has us
now? If he offers to trade it back to us for the other oblong box, how
can I refuse? If we have his secret, Loge has ours!"

But Dr. Farnsworth was not listening. He had suddenly leaned over the
port rail and was staring down the canal. The others followed his gaze.

The house boat Annabel Lee, they perceived, had got under weigh, and
was slowly approaching the Jasper B. in the moonlight. They watched
her gradual approach in silence. She stopped within a few yards of the
Jasper B., and a voice which Cleggett recognized as that of Wilton
Barnstable, the great detective, sang out:

"Jasper B., ahoy!"

"Aye, aye!" shouted Cleggett.

"Is Mr. Cleggett on board?"

"He is speaking."

"Mr. Cleggett, have you lost anything from your canal boat?"

Cleggett did not answer, and for a moment he did not move. Then,
tightening his sword belt, and cocking h