"I'm afraid you'll
think me more picturesque than businesslike if I tell you all the
conclusions I've already come to; but the man who came ashore in
this boat didn't steal Sholto."

"Go on," he said. "Why, I told you I knew you weren't a fool."

"Thank you!" I laughed. "It seems to me that if a man arrived in a
boat and went ashore to steal a dog, he would go away again in the
same boat."

"And didn't he?"

"I feel convinced he didn't," I replied, and pointed out to him what
must have been obvious to both of us. "Compare the keel-marks with
high-water mark. There is less than half a boat's length of keel-mark,
and it is just up above high-water mark. This craft, which appears to
have been a small rowing-boat, was run ashore at high tide, or very
near it, and run out again very quickly. It might conceivably have
come in and been caught up by the sea. But Sholto was stolen between a
quarter past eight and half-past nine, when the tide was well on the
way out. If Sholto went out to sea it was not in this boat."

"Well," said Garnesk, thoughtfully, "your point is good enough for me.
We must look somewhere else."

"I hope my attempts at detective work will not put us off the scent,"
I said, doubtfully.

"I don't think they will, Ewart," said my companion, graciously. "Not
in this case, anyway. I'm sure you're right, because this bay can be
seen from the top windows of the house."

"You evidently reached my conclusions with half the effort in half the
time," I laughed.

"Oh, nonsense!" he exclaimed. "It was you who pointed out that the
one man in this boat came in daylight."

"Why 'one man' so emphatically?" I asked.

"When two men come in a boat to commit a theft, and only one of them
goes ashore, the other would hardly be expected to sit in the boat and
twiddle his thumbs. It's a thousand pounds to a penny that he would
get out and walk about the beach. Now, only one gentleman came ashore
from this boat, and only one got on board again. One set of footprints
going and one coming decided me on that. Besides, if anyone came along
and saw a solitary man sitting in a boat, they might ask him how his
wife and children were, and he would have to reply; whereas an empty
boat, being unable to answer questions, would raise no suspicions."

"You seem to be arguing that this boat may have been the one we are
looking for," I pointed out; "and yet we are agreed that the state of
the tide made it impossible for Sholto to