"He does not understand boats," said Barnstable."That is the reason, I take it, why he has always fished in the canal from the deck of the JasperB."
"Abernethy is a gallant man," said Cleggett, rather sternly."And even although he may have had little actual seafaring experience, the instinct is in him! The inherited love of a nautical life has been latent in him all along.And at the first opportunity it has come out.He has shown his mettle aboard the Jasper B.""I do not doubt it, if you insist upon it," said Wilton Barnstable, politely.And from revolving his thumbs benignly towards himself he began to revolve them urbanely from himself.The reversal was imitated at once by Barton Ward, but Watson Bard was slower in putting this new coup into execution.
"The resemblance between the two oblong boxes evidently fooled Logan Black," continued Barnstable, "and his men stole the wrong one.but he knows by this time that his plan to get the box has failed.""He knows it?" said Cleggett.
"From the bank of the canal he witnessed our capture of the box, and of the two men who were making off with it.After you had beaten off his assault upon the ship, he turned his attention to the canal, to see if the men whom he had assigned to the job of creeping over the stern of the Jasper B.had by any chance succeeded in purloining the box.He was alone, but he attempted to come to the assistance of his two followers even as we made them prisoners.In fact, we exchanged shots."The great detective made little of the danger he had encountered.Indeed, his smile became one of amusement as he removed his coat,rolled up his shirt sleeves, and exhibited a bandaged wound in the fleshy part of his arm.
"It is only a slight wound," he said, beaming on it as if wounds were quite delightful affairs, "and scarcely inconveniences me."Barton Ward and Watson Bard, with their sleeves rolled up, were also smiling placidly and indulgently at bandages about their left arms.Whether there were real wounds beneath their bandages also, Cleggett could not determine.The bandage of Barton Ward was slightly stained with red, but the bandage of Watson Bard was quite white.All three replaced their coats at the same time, and Wilton Barnstable went on:
"Our course of procedure is plain, Mr.Cleggett.We have the evidence against Logan Black.We must have the man himself.I depend upon you to cooperate with me.I think," he said, beaming at Barton Ward and Watson Bard with an air of modest triumph, "that the case of Logan Black is going to prove one of my really GREAT cases.
"There is only one point which I have not yet made clear to you, I believe--and that is how Logan Black's men were able to enter and leave the hold of your vessel so mysteriously.But I am shaping up my theory about that!I am shaping it up!""Would it be indescreet to inquire just what your theory is?" asked Cleggett.
And Lady Agatha murmured:
"For my part, I can make nothing of it, and I should be glad to hear your theory.""It would," said Wilton Barnstable, soberly, "it would be premature, if I told you my theory at the present moment.You must pardon me--but it WOULD.In my line of business--and I insist, Mr.Cleggett, that I am a plain business man, nothing more--I find it absolutely necessary not to communicate all my information to the layman until the case is quite perfect in all its points.But do not get the notion, Mr.Cleggett, that I underestimate the part that you have taken in the case of Logan Black.You have helped me, Mr.Cleggett.When I have my secretary prepare the case of Logan Black for magazine and newspaper publication I shall have your name mentioned as that of a person who has helped me.Yes,you have helped me."
As he spoke he picked from a reading table a magazine, on the cover of which appeared his own portrait--or rather, the portrait of the popular conception of Wilton Barnstable--and began to make motions about it with his finger.He appeared to be marking off the space beside the portrait into an arrangement of letters and spaces.His lips moved as he did so; he murmured: "The Case of Logan Black--the Case of Logan Black!" He seemed to see, with the eye of a typographical expert, the legend printed there.Barton Ward and Watson Bard, slightly flushed and a little excited in spite of themselves, seemed also to see it there.
