ed straight away to prove it to
his own satisfaction.

Next day soon after one o'clock I re-entered the low-built little
river-side inn and found within a few bargemen and labourers gossiping,
as such men will gossip. The landlord who served me eyed me up and down
as though half inclined to recognise me, so I recalled the fact that I
had been in his house a week or so ago.

Whereupon he immediately became communicative, and we had a friendly
glass together. I told him that I had concluded my job--in order to
account for my hours of idleness in the days that were to follow--and I
then became a regular customer, seldom leaving before the house closed.

Bramberger was one day visited by the German mate of the timber-ship
which had just come in, the man of his own nationality who had been in
the bar on the night of our arrival at Maldon, and who seemed to be well
known to his usual customers, for apparently he made regular visits from
across the North Sea.

I noticed that during the afternoon they were closeted together in the
landlord's private room, and during the evening they drank in company.

The return of this German at once aroused my suspicions, therefore at
ten o'clock, instead of returning to the "King's Head," I concealed
myself at the waterside and there waited. It was an intensely cold
vigil, and as the time crept by, and the church clock struck hour after
hour, I began to fear that my suspicions were unfounded.

At last, however, from the timber-craft lying in the Blackwater came a
boat noiselessly into the deep shadow, and from it landed two men, each
carrying a heavy box upon his shoulder. They walked straight over to the
"Goat and Binnacle," the side door of which opened noiselessly, and
having deposited their loads, they returned to the boat. This journey to
and fro they repeated four times. Then they rowed away, and though I
waited the greater part of the night, they did not return.

I reported this in a note I sent round to Ray at his lodging in the
poorer quarter of the town, and in reply I received a message that he
would meet me at the river-side at eleven that night.

Part of that evening I spent smoking in the inn, and an hour after
closing-time I came upon my friend with whispered greeting at the
appointed spot.

"Have you seen Freeman?" was his first question, and when I replied in
the negative, he told me that he had just been admitted by Bramberger.

"You've got your revolver, I suppo