he did at last confide in
Gorman to some extent.

"I think," he said, "I may tell you about this. I found this out
myself."

He took a letter-case from his pocket and produced from it a corner
torn off an envelope.

"Look at that," he said. "Look at it carefully."

Gorman stared at the scrap of paper.

"Bit of an envelope," he said. "Penny stamp, London postmark."

"Now look at this," said Phillips.

He handed Gorman part of another envelope, torn in exactly the same
way. Gorman looked at it.

"Same sort of envelope," he said. "Same postmark, different dates."

"That last one," said Phillips, "is a corner of an envelope which I
got through the post ten days ago. It came from the office, Mr.
Steinwitz' office. The first one I found in the hall of the Queen's
palace the day we landed on Salissa."

"Well," said Gorman, "that's not much to go on. Lots of firms use
envelopes like that, and I suppose there are thousands of letters
every day with that postmark. Still it's possible that Steinwitz wrote
a letter to some one who was on the island last September. Were there
any other bits of paper on that floor?"

"There were," said Phillips, "but I didn't pick them up. I intended to
next day. But they were gone. The floor had been swept."

"Oh! Who swept the floor?"

"Smith. I saw him doing it."

"Now who," said Gorman, "is Smith?"

"Smith! He was steward on the _Ida_. Mr. Steinwitz sent him on board
just before we sailed. He stayed on the island as servant to the
Donovans. Oh, by the way, talking of Smith, perhaps I ought to tell
you----"

He told Gorman the story of Smith's early morning visit to the cave in
company with Stephanos the Elder.

"Does Smith ever write letters?" asked Gorman.

"I don't know. Oh, yes. I remember. The day we docked at Tilbury,
after our return voyage, Captain Wilson sent me up to the office with
some letters of Mr. Donovan's. Just as I was starting he called me
back and said I might as well take Smith's letters too. There were
three of them, all addressed to Mr. Steinwitz."

"I think," said Gorman, "that when I get to the island I'll have a
look at those cisterns of yours."

"I'll ask the Queen if I may take you," said Phillips.

"You and the Queen," said Gorman, "seem to have formed yourselves into
a kind of detective brotherhood for the discovery of the mystery of
the island."

"We thought it would be rather fun."

"You don't appear to have found out very much. Suppo