is hat a trifle, he climbed
over the starboard rail and walked along the bank of the canal a few
yards until he was opposite the Annabel Lee. The great detective, on
his part, also stepped ashore. They stood and faced each other in the
moonlight, silently, and their followers, also in silence, gathered in
the bows of the respective vessels and watched them.

Finally, Cleggett, with one hand on his hip, and standing with his feet
wide apart, said very incisively:

"Sir, the Jasper B. is NOT a canal boat."

"Eh?" Wilton Barnstable started at the emphasis.

"The Jasper B.," pursued Cleggett, staring steadily at Wilton
Barnstable, "is a schooner."

"Ah!" said the other. "Indeed?"

"A schooner," repeated Cleggett, "indeed, sir! Indeed, sir, a schooner!"

There was another silence, in which neither man would look aside; they
held each other with their eyes; the nervous strain communicated itself
to the crews of the two vessels. At last, however, the detective,
although he did not lower his gaze, and although he strove to give his
new attitude an effect of ease and jauntiness by twisting the end of
his mustache as he spoke, said to Cleggett:

"A schooner, then, Mr. Cleggett, a schooner! No offense, I hope?"

"None at all," said Cleggett, heartily enough, now that the point had
been established. And the tension relaxed on both ships.

"You have lost an oblong box, Mr. Cleggett." The great detective
affirmed it rather than interrogated.

"How did you know that?"

The other laughed. "We know a great many things--it is our business to
know things," he said. Then he dropped his voice to a whisper, and said
rapidly, "Mr. Cleggett, do you know who I am?" Before Cleggett could
reply he continued, "Brace yourself--do not make an outcry when I tell
you who I am. I am Wilton Barnstable."

"I knew you," said Cleggett. The other appeared disappointed for a
moment. And then he inquired anxiously, "How did you know me?"

"Why, from your pictures in the magazines," said Cleggett.

The detective brightened perceptibly. "Ah, yes--the magazines! Yes,
yes, indeed! publicity is unavoidable, unavoidable, Mr. Cleggett! But
this box, now----"

The great detective interrupted himself to laugh again, a trifle
complacently, Cleggett thought.

"I will not mystify you, Mr. Cleggett, about the box. Mystification is
one of the tricks of the older schools of detection. I never practice
it, Mr. Cleggett. With me, the detecti