reason in the world for it now. I had left my glass
untouched and my cigar unlit in Pye's cabin. I went back forthwith to
finish both.

The pair were still seated as if expecting me.

"Patient all right, doctor?" inquired Holgate.

I nodded. "Mr. Pye," I said, "I find my discovery has amplified itself.
When I was here it was of small dimensions. Now it has grown to the
proportions of a--well, a balloon," I ended.

Both men gazed at me steadily.

"Out with it, man," urged the third officer.

"I have your permission?" I asked the lawyer's clerk, smiling.

"When you have told me what it is, I will tell you," said he, gravely
jocose.

I put the paper in Holgate's hands, and pointed to the paragraph. He
read it slowly aloud and then looked up.

"Well?" he asked.

"I am going to tell you something which you know," I said, addressing
Pye. "The lady in the deck cabin is Mlle. Trebizond."

Holgate started. "Good Heavens!" he exclaimed, but Pye was quite
silent, only keeping his eyes on me.

"I recognized her, but couldn't name her," I went on. "Now it has come
back to me."

"Which means, of course," said Pye unemotionally, "that Mr. Morland
is----"

"The Prince," said Holgate with a heavy breath.

Pye resumed his cigarette. "With all these sensations, my dear
Holgate," he remarked, "I have forgotten my duty. Perhaps you will help
yourself."

Holgate did so. "Good Heavens!" he said again, and then, "I suppose, if
you're right, that we carry Caesar and his fortunes. He has got off with
the lady and the plunder."

"The plunder!" I echoed.

He indicated the paragraph, and I read now another sentence which I had
overlooked.

"The prince has expressed his intention, according to rumour, of
marrying as he chooses, and as he inherits more than a million pounds
from his mother, he is in a position to snap his fingers at the
Empress. In that case, no doubt, he would follow precedent, and take
rank as an ordinary subject."

I looked up at Holgate.

"We carry Caesar and his fortune," he said with a smiling emphasis on
the singular, and then he waved his arm melodramatically. "And to think
we are all paupers!" and grinned at me.

"It is inequitable," said I lightly; "it's an unjust distribution of
this world's goods," echoing therein his own remark earlier in the
evening.

Pye sat still, with an inexpressive face. His admirable silence,
however, now ceased.

"So we shall have this gossip all over the ship t