ashore alone after dark. Then I will go to the other
landing places and ask there. There are always boys hanging about
to earn a few pence by taking care of boats. I will be back as soon
as I can."

The boat was still alongside, and the men stretched to their oars.
Th a very few minutes they were at the club landing stage. The
waterman here declared that no ladies whatever, unaccompanied by
gentlemen, had landed after dark.

"I must have seen them, sir," he said, "for you see I go down to
help out every party that arrives here. They must have gone to one
of the other landing places."

But at neither of these could he obtain any information. There were
several boys at each of them who had been there for hours, and they
were unanimous in declaring that no ladies had landed there after
dark at all. He then walked up and down between the watch house and
the club.

He had, when he landed, intended to go to the police office as soon
as he had inquired at the landing stages--the natural impulse of an
Englishman who has suffered loss or wrong--but the more he thought
it over the more inexpedient did such a course seem to him. It was
highly improbable--indeed, it seemed to him impossible--that they
could do more than he had in the matter. The passage of two ladies
through the crowded streets would scarcely have attracted the
attention of anyone, and any idea of violence being used was out of
the question. If they had landed, which he now regarded as very
improbable, they must have at least gone willingly to the place
where they believed they should find him, and unless every house in
Cowes was searched from top to bottom there was no chance of
finding them, carefully hidden away as they would be. He could not
see, therefore, that the police could at present be of any utility
whatever. It might be necessary finally to obtain the aid of the
police, but in that case it was Scotland Yard and not Cowes that
the matter must be laid before; and even this should be only a last
resort, for above all things it was necessary for Bertha's sake
that the matter should be kept a profound secret, and, once in the
hands of the police, it would be in all the papers the next day. If
the aid of detectives was to be called in, it would be far better
to put it into the hands of a private detective.

Having made up his mind upon this point, he returned to the yacht.

"I am sorry to say that I have no news," he said to Lady Greendale,
who was