. He slapped his thigh. "I said there was something
fishy about it."

"There was nothing fishy, as you call it, at all, Mr. Chayne, and I'm
surprised at your casting such an aspersion on my character. I had a
short letter from Mrs. Prescott yesterday enclosing four other letters
which she asked me to stamp and post, as I owed her fourpence change on
her bill."

"Where did she write from?" Jaffery asked eagerly.

"Nowhere in particular," said the provoking lady.

"But the postmark on the envelope."

She had not looked at the postmark and the envelope had been destroyed.

"Then where is she?" I asked.

"At Southampton, you idiot," said Jaffery. "Let us get there at once."

So after a visit to my bankers--for I am not the kind of person to set
out for Santa Fe de Bogota with twopence halfpenny in my pocket--and
after a hasty lunch at a restaurant, much to Jaffery's impatient
disgust--"Why the dickens," cried he, "did I order a big breakfast if
we're to fool about wasting time over lunch?"--but as I explained, if I
don't have regular meals, I get a headache--and after having made other
sane preparations for a journey, including the purchase of a toothbrush,
an indispensable toilet adjunct, which Franklin, admirable fellow that
he is, invariably forgets to put into my case, we started for
Southampton. And along the jolly Portsmouth Road we went, through
Guildford, along the Hog's Back, over the Surrey Downs rolling warm in
the sunshine, through Farnham, through grey, dreamy Winchester, past St.
Cross, with its old-world almshouse, through Otterbourne and up the hill
and down to Southampton, seventy-eight miles, in two hours and a
quarter. Jaffery drove.

We began our search. First we examined the playbills at the various
places of entertainment. Ras Fendihook was not playing in Southampton.
We went round the hotels, the South-Western, the Royal, the Star, the
Dolphin, the Polygon--and found no trace of the runaways. Jaffery
interviewed officials at the stations and docks, dapper gentlemen with
the air of diplomatists, tremendous fellows in uniform, policemen,
porters, with all of whom he seemed to be on terms of familiar
acquaintance; but none of them could trace or remember such a couple
having crossed by the midnight boats of Thursday or Friday. Nor were
their names down on the list of those who had secured berths in advance
for this Saturday night.

"You're rather at fault," said I, rather maliciously, not dis