Page:Fletcher - The Mortover Grange Affair.pdf/235

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
PASSPORTS!
225

poole on the platform! Then, of course, I had to do the dodging game again. It was fortunate for me that it was evening, but though it was I had to be jolly careful. However, they never saw me, but I did see enough to see that after they'd got her two trunks on to a barrow Thomas had another, similarly labelled, fetched from the left luggage office. After that they got a cab and drove off—and I lost 'em! When I wanted a cab there wasn't one. I'd a nice hunt for them last night, I can tell you, Mr. Wedgwood! I hung round the principal hotels, peeped into windows, and ventured into two or three, but I couldn't find them. At last, I found that the Mauretania didn't sail till four o'clock this afternoon, so I turned into a small hotel myself near the Docks and went to bed. But this morning—I got 'em!"

"How?" asked Wedgwood, who by this time was beginning to admire his amateur assistant's powers. "Accident—or what?"

"Well, it was accident," replied Stainsby, candidly. "Good luck! The hotel I put up at is on the other side of a sort of park opposite the Dock Gates. I was looking out of the window as I was dressing, and I saw Thomas Wraypoole standing near the Dock Gates talking to a policeman. After a bit he turned away and went back across the road to a side en-