ed away to Euston. There was one
thing which attracted my attention, however, on that short journey.
Brooks' ungloved hand was hanging down as he sat on the box, and I
noticed that he kept snapping his fingers as he sat.

"That's a very highly nervous man," I said to myself, "and even that
little incident has upset him."

Brooks' nervousness passed out of my mind altogether when we reached
Euston, and I sought in the bustle for my two cousins. I found them at
last standing in front of the reserved coupe which I had taken care to
have secured for us by my man.

When they saw me, a look of surprise and amusement came over their
faces, and they both laughed heartily.

"What on earth have you been doing, Will?" Ethel cried. "Have you been
to a suffragists' meeting on the way?"

Ethel affected to laugh at the suffragists, but in her heart I believe
she would have liked to join them, and perhaps would have done so but
for her brother.

"No," I answered; "what's the matter with me?"

"Look at your coat," replied St. Nivel, pointing to the breast of that
garment.

I did look, and found that both my travelling coat and the coat
underneath it had been cut completely through the left breast, where my
pocket was, with a knife whose edge must have been as keen as that of a
razor.

At the first shock I cried, half aloud--

"Good God! The packets have been stolen."

Then I recollected my forethought in placing them in my trousers
pockets, and I dived my hands into them instinctively. Yes, thank God,
they were all right; my two hands closed on their crisp sealed surfaces.

But how had it occurred?

I thought of the man tearing along with the evening papers, the
upsetting of Brooks, and the fussy lady and gentleman who had insisted
on brushing me down. I saw it all now--a carefully prepared plan!

Then I roared with laughter, much to the astonishment of Ethel and St.
Nivel.

"They've had all their trouble for nothing," I gasped, simply stamping
with delight; "the silly fools have got nothing!" But I was wrong;
they had got my brand new cigar case given me by Ethel with my initials
on it and full of St. Nivel's best Havannahs, placed there by her own
fair hands for the railway journey.

CHAPTER XI

THE OCEANA

Very thankful were my two cousins and I when we got clear of the fogs
of the Mersey and were fairly out at sea. Not that we were bad
sailors. We did not proclaim that we were, at any rate, th