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Farnum," continued Josh Owen, hotly. "Then you deny that you were here, and that you tampered with a sea-valve last night?" insisted the yard's owner, looking his man keenly in the eyes. "I'll deny it with my dying breath," asserted the former foreman, boldly. "As for those lying boys " "Do you believe this can lie?" inquired Mr. Farnum, passing the accused man a photograph print.
At sound of his voice the boys stepped out of the engine room into the cabin. "Mighty comfortable sort of place," continued the yard's owner, looking around him. "We'll have to put in some books, won't we, so you young men can read when you're doing nothing under water?" "Maybe the time will come when we can read," laughed Hal.
Though there was nothing in the builder's tone at which offense could be taken, this reply quieted both Melvilles for the time being. "Come on. We'll all go down to the shore and see what it is," added the yard's owner. Captain Jack hurried ahead, entered the shore boat and was rowed out alongside the "Pollard." "It's all right, fellows," he called, as soon as he boarded. "Everything ready?"
"That finger there, we'll say, is me, rakin' and rakin' hard as ever I can. And that fist there is the Almighty, not meanin' anything irreverent. I rake, same as I'm doin' this mornin'. The yard's all cleaned up. Then zing!" Lute's clenched fist swept across and knocked the offending finger out of the way.
"If there isn't," volunteered the superintendent, "I can send you over plenty. But the use of such stuff as that would leave some joints loose, and make a breakdown of the boat's machinery certain." "You see, Owen," spoke the yard's owner, quietly, turning to the foreman, "you're letting your dislike for these boys spoil your value here as foreman."
Certain it was, that every clown they met carried, whether for offence or defence, a most formidable weapon; a light axe, with a short pike at the head, and a long slender handle of ash or yew, well seasoned. These the natives could all throw with singular precision, so as to make the point strike an object at several yard's distance, or could slay a bullock at hand with a stroke of the blade.
This idea suggested another, and with them both in mind, I set out to make my inquiries, first taking the precaution to disguise my identity, to which end Weymouth gave me the freedom of Scotland Yard's fancy wardrobe. I did not take the agent into my confidence, but posed as a stranger who had heard that the house was to let furnished and thought it might suit his purpose.
Half a yard's difference, and both vessels would have sunk. Three hundred and fifty people were sleeping peacefully on board the steamer, and the majority of them must have gone down, while those who were saved would have had a hard time in the boats.
"But I won't admit the supposition of his being lost, not for an instant." "Neither will I," said Paganel. "Is Australia a big place?" inquired Robert. "Australia, my boy, is about as large as four-fifths of Europe. It has somewhere about 775,000 HECTARES." "So much as that?" said the Major. "Yes, McNabbs, almost to a yard's breadth. Don't you think now it has a right to be called a continent?"
How had Scotland Yard's anonymous correspondent learned about the murder, and what were his motives in informing the police in the way he had done? Was he connected with the crime? Had the murderer a companion with him when he broke into Riversbrook for the purpose of burglary? That seemed to be the most probable explanation.
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