nd she had been repainted.
I made searching inquiry, and found that on the evening she was
purposely run aground in order to strike up a friendship at the
Consulate, a Russian gunboat was lying in the vicinity. The Consul's
safe was rifled, and the scheme certainly was to transfer anything
obtained from it to the Russian gunboat."

"But what was in the safe?" I asked.

"Fortunately nothing. But you see they knew that our squadron was due in
Leghorn, and that some extremely important despatches were on the way to
the Admiral--secret orders based upon the decision of the British
Cabinet as to the vexed question of Russian ships passing the
Dardanelles--they expected that they would be lodged in the safe until
the arrival of the squadron, as they always are. They were, however,
bitterly disappointed because the despatches had not arrived."

"And then?"

"Well, the only Russian who appeared to have any connection with them
was Baron Oberg, the Governor-General of Finland, whose habit it was to
spend part of the winter in the Mediterranean. From Elma Heath's
conversation at dinner that evening at Nice I gathered that she and her
uncle had been guests on the _Iris_ on several occasions, although I
must say that Muriel was extremely reticent regarding all that concerned
the yacht."

"Of course," she said quickly. "Now that I have told you the truth,
Jack, don't you think it was only natural?"

"Most certainly, dear," he answered, still holding her hand. "Yours was
not a secret that you could very well tell to me until you could
thoroughly trust me, especially as your father had been implicated in
the theft of those documents from Malta. The truth is," he said, turning
to me, "Philip Leithcourt has all along been the catspaw of Baron Oberg.
A few years ago he was a well-known money-lender in the city, and in
that capacity met the Baron, who, being in disgrace, required a loan. He
was also in the habit of having certain shady transactions with that
daring gang of continental thieves of whom Dick Archer and Hylton Chater
were leaders. For this reason he purchased a yacht for their use, so
that they might not only use it for the purpose of storing the stolen
goods, but for the purpose of sailing from place to place under the
guise of wealthy Englishmen traveling for pleasure. Upon that vessel,
indeed, was stored thousands and thousands of pounds' worth of jewels
and objects of value, the proceeds of many great robberies in