ugh in its
way it was quite useful--but because of its indication of Merriman's
frame of mind. He had feared that because of Miss Coburn's connection
with the affair he would lose his friend's help, even that they might
quarrel. And now he saw these fears were groundless. Thankfully he
recognized that they would co-operate as they had originally intended.

"Jolly good notion, that," he answered cordially.

"I confess," Merriman went on slowly, "that I should have liked to stay
in the neighborhood and see if we couldn't find out something more about
the lorry numbers. It may be a trivial point, but it's the only direct
and definite thing we know of. All the rest are hints or suspicions
or probabilities. But here we have a bit of mystery, tangible, in our
hands, as it were. Why were those number plates changed? It seems to me
a good point of attack."

"I thought of that, too, and I agree with every word you say," Hilliard
replied eagerly, "but there is the question of our being suspects. I
believe we shall be watched out of the place, and I feel sure our only
chance of learning anything is to satisfy them of our bona fides."

Merriman agreed, and they continued discussing the matter in detail,
at last deciding to adopt Hilliard's SUGGESTION and set to work on the
English end of the mysterious traffic.

About two that afternoon they swung round the Pointe de Grave into the
estuary of the Gironde. The tide, which was then flowing, turned when
they were some two-thirds of the way up, and it was well on to seven
o'clock when they made fast to the same decaying wharf from which they
had set out. Hilliard saw the owner, and arranged with him to let the
launch lie at one of his moorings until she should be required. Then the
friends went up town, got some dinner, wrote their letters, and took the
night train for Paris. Next evening they were in London.

"I say," Hilliard remarked when later on that same evening they sat in
his rooms discussing their plans, "I believe we can find out about the
Girondin now. My neighbor on the next landing above is a shipping man.
He might have a copy of Lloyd's Register. I shall go and ask him."

In a few moments he returned with a bulky volume. "One of the wonders of
the world, this, I always think," he said, as he began to turn over the
pages. "It gives, or is supposed to give, information about everything
over a hundred tons that floats anywhere over the entire globe. It'll
give the Gir