"I say," I tackled him at once, "how can you be certain that Flora de
Barral ever went to sea? After all, the wife of the captain of the
_Ferndale_--" the lady that mustn't be disturbed "of the old
ship-keeper--may not have been Flora."
"Well, I do know," he said, "if only because I have been keeping in touch
with Mr. Powell."
"You have!" I cried. "This is the first I hear of it. And since when?"
"Why, since the first day. You went up to town leaving me in the inn. I
slept ashore. In the morning Mr. Powell came in for breakfast; and after
the first awkwardness of meeting a man you have been yarning with over-
night had worn off, we discovered a liking for each other."
As I had discovered the fact of their mutual liking before either of
them, I was not surprised.
"And so you kept in touch," I said.
"It was not so very difficult. As he was always knocking about the river
I hired Dingle's sloop-rigged three-tonner to be more on an equality.
Powell was friendly but elusive. I don't think he ever wanted to avoid
me. But it is a fact that he used to disappear out of the river in a
very mysterious manner sometimes.
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