next morning. I think we must have been out of sight of land before the
news of the governor's disappearance was spread abroad."

"What explanation can you give of his sudden disappearance?"

"None whatever, sir."

"Then, in the demon's name, why have you come forward at all at this
time?"

"Because I was advertised for."

"That was months ago."

"But months ago I was at sea and knew nothing of the matter. I have but
just returned from a long voyage, and hearing among other matters that
Governor Rothsay had been missing since the day of his inauguration,
that Governor Kennedy reigned in his stead, and that the latest visitor
of the missing man had long been wanting, I have come."

"Do you appreciate the gravity of your own position, sir, under the
circumstances?" sternly demanded the Iron King.

"I--don't--understand you," said the skipper, in evident perplexity.

"You don't? That is strange. You are the last man--the last person--who
saw Governor-elect Rothsay alive, at eleven o'clock on the night of his
disappearance. After that hour he was missing, and you had run away."

The young sailor smiled.

"Steamed away, and sailed away, you should say, sir. I see the suspicion
to which your words point, and will answer them at once: On that night
in question I was a guest of the Crockett House. I was absent from that
house only half an hour--from a quarter to eleven to a quarter after
eleven--during which time I walked to this house, saw the
governor-elect, and walked back to the hotel, only to pay my bill, take
a hack and drive to the railway station. Do you think that in half an
hour I could have done all that and murdered the governor, and made away
with his body besides, Mr. Rockharrt?"

"You would have to prove the truth of your words, sir," replied the Iron
King.

"That is easily done by the people at the hotel. I did not tell them
where I was going. I never even thought of telling them. But they know
I was only gone half an hour; for before going out, or just as I was
going out, I ordered the carriage to be ready to take me to the depot at
a quarter past eleven."

"They may have forgotten all about you."

"Not at all. I am an old customer, though a young man. They know me very
well."

"Then it is very strange that when every anxious inquiry was made for
this latest visitor of the governor-elect, these hotel people did not
come forward and name you."

"But I repeat, sir, that they did not know t