e two oblong boxes evidently fooled Logan
Black," continued Barnstable, "and his men stole the wrong one, but he
knows by this time that his plan to get the box has failed."

"He knows it?" said Cleggett.

"From the bank of the canal he witnessed our capture of the box, and of
the two men who were making off with it. After you had beaten off his
assault upon the ship, he turned his attention to the canal, to see if
the men whom he had assigned to the job of creeping over the stern of
the Jasper B. had by any chance succeeded in purloining the box. He
was alone, but he attempted to come to the assistance of his two
followers even as we made them prisoners. In fact, we exchanged shots."

The great detective made little of the danger he had encountered.

Indeed, his smile became one of amusement as he removed his coat,
rolled up his shirt sleeves, and exhibited a bandaged wound in the
fleshy part of his arm.

"It is only a slight wound," he said, beaming on it as if wounds were
quite delightful affairs, "and scarcely inconveniences me."

Barton Ward and Watson Bard, with their sleeves rolled up, were also
smiling placidly and indulgently at bandages about their left arms.
Whether there were real wounds beneath their bandages also, Cleggett
could not determine. The bandage of Barton Ward was slightly stained
with red, but the bandage of Watson Bard was quite white. All three
replaced their coats at the same time, and Wilton Barnstable went on:

"Our course of procedure is plain, Mr. Cleggett. We have the evidence
against Logan Black. We must have the man himself. I depend upon you
to cooperate with me. I think," he said, beaming at Barton Ward and
Watson Bard with an air of modest triumph, "that the case of Logan
Black is going to prove one of my really GREAT cases.

"There is only one point which I have not yet made clear to you, I
believe--and that is how Logan Black's men were able to enter and leave
the hold of your vessel so mysteriously. But I am shaping up my theory
about that! I am shaping it up!"

"Would it be indescreet to inquire just what your theory is?" asked
Cleggett.

And Lady Agatha murmured:

"For my part, I can make nothing of it, and I should be glad to hear
your theory."

"It would," said Wilton Barnstable, soberly, "it would be premature, if
I told you my theory at the present moment. You must pardon me--but it
WOULD. In my line of business--and I insist, Mr. Cleggett, that I