se in
some of us troubling thoughts, which, summed up, say "Leave us alone!"
Such thoughts had disturbed me when, with farewells from Bess, I retired
to the sporting columns of my newspaper, and the train moved out.

In compensation for my experience of the previous evening, the journey
went quickly by. A sunny morning, blue and still, lit up the country.
So fine was the day, and the country, with its ancient timber, its
mole-hilled pastures, its feeding horses and cheerful rooks, appeared so
mellow, that the wisdom of leaving it behind was not so conspicuous as,
the night before, it had been. Cardiff. I knew nothing about it, except
as "Cardiff." I entrusted myself, therefore, to a taxi-driver, who
claimed to know more, even to the whereabouts of the shipping office
to which I was bound. After meanderings and advice from the police and
the public, he made amends for his inaccuracy by setting me down at
the foot of a gloomy staircase leading to the rooms of Messrs. Wright,
Style and Storey.

And now for a few moments I was in trouble. Thinking that the telegram
which warranted my calling at this Cardiff office of the London Company
would best explain my intrusion, I handed it over the fateful counter.
The clerk took it, assumed a serious air, avoided looking at me, and
referred to a superior. I was puzzled. More so, the superior. A murderer,
concerned in the atrocity at Bournemouth, was at that time untraced,
and I fancy that the official had the mystery in his mind at this point.
At any rate, eyeing the wire with doubt for some time, he suddenly
advanced towards me and put the question, in stern accents: "Who are you?"

Who are you?

I feel sure that my explanation was unbusinesslike, but he presently
divined the truth. Word of my movement had not been sent him from London.
He withdrew to the telephone or time-table; then restoring to me my
sibylline leaf, told me to go to Barry Docks, where I should find the
_Bonadventure_, recognizable by a white S painted on the funnel, lying
at Tip Eleven or Twelve, and to go aboard and report myself to the
captain. I went, fearing lest the captain likewise might know as little
in advance about the trembling suspect before him.

Urchins scrambled for my luggage at the Barry Docks Station, an hour
or so later, and the two victors hurried it along to Tip Eleven. These
coal-tips overhead and the shipping alongside, with knots of workmen
passing masked in coal-dust, engaged my min