rcelona. But he did not. His name was not
on the list of passengers, and although he might have avoided that, he
was not seen on board or to come on board. I have spoken with officers
and crew. Jose Medina did not cross on the 21st. Moreover, Senor Baeza
has seen a letter which shows that he was certainly in Palma on the
23rd."

"That is true," said Baeza. "Medina was in Palma on the 21st, and in
Palma on the 23rd, and he did not cross to Barcelona on the night of the
21st, nor back again to Palma on the night of the 22nd. Therefore he was
not seen to visit the German Consulate on the morning of the 22nd, and,
as Ramon says, Pontiana is lying."

"Why should Pontiana lie?" asked Hillyard.

Ramon took his pince-nez from the bridge of his nose, and, holding them
between his finger and thumb, tapped with them upon his knee.

"Because, senor, there are other contrabandists besides Jose Medina; one
little group at Tarragona and another near Garucha--and they would all
be very glad to see Jose Medina get into trouble with the British and
the French. His feluccas fly the British flag and his factories are on
French soil. There would be an end of Jose Medina."

The letters were put in front of Hillyard. He read them over carefully,
and at the end he said:

"If Pontiana Tabor lied in this case of the Consulate--and that seems
clear--it is very likely that he lied also in the other. Yes."

As a matter of fact, Hillyard had reasons of his own to doubt the truth
of the story which ascribed to Medina the actual provisioning of a
submarine--reasons which had nothing whatever to do with Jose Medina
himself.

The destruction of shipping by German submarines in this western section
of the Mediterranean had an intermittent regularity. There would be ten
successive days--hardly ever more than ten days--during which ships were
sunk. Thereafter for three weeks, steamships and sailing ships would
follow the course upon which they were ordered, without hurt or loss.
After three weeks, the murderous business would begin again. There was
but one explanation in Hillyard's opinion.

"The submarines come out of Pola. When they reach the line between the
Balearics and the Spanish coast, they have oil for ten days' cruising,
and then return to their base," he argued.

Now, if a submarine had been provisioned by Jose Medina in a creek of
Mallorca, the ten days' cruise would be extended to three weeks. This
had never happened. Moreover, the