liquor, which he
never took Himself. Jenny is so Fond of her Books, and says she
will _teech you to write_ when you come home, which will be a
great _Comfort_, you being away so long and never a word. And I
am doing wonders under her teaching, which I dare say she will
let you know of it all in the letter she is writing to go along
with this . . . Simon to write for you, who is a . . . scholar,
which is natural . . . in the office. So that I wonder he left
it, having no taste for the sea that ever I heard . . . be the
making of you both. I forgot to tell . . . very strange when he
left, but what with the hurry and bussle it _slipped my mind_
. . . wonderful to me to think of, my talking to you so natural
. . . distance. And so no more at present from your loving
wife,"
"LUCY RAILTON."

"Jenny says . . . will not alter, being more like as if it came
from me. Munny is very scarce. I wish you could get . . ."

This was all, and small enough, as I thought, was the light it threw
on the problem before us. Uncle Loveday read it over three or four
times; then folded up the letter and looked at me over his
spectacles.

"You say this cut-throat fellow--this Rhodojani, as he called
himself--spoke English?"

"As well as we do. He and the other spoke English all the time."

"H'm! And he talked about a Jenny, did he?"

"He was saying something about 'Jenny not finding a husband' when
John Railton struck him."

"Then it's clear as daylight that he's called Simon, and not Georgio.
Also if I ever bet (though far be it from me) I would bet my buttons
that his name is no more Rhodojani than mine is Methuselah."

He paused for a moment, absorbed in thought; then resumed--

"This Lucy Railton is John Railton's wife and keeps a public-house
called the 'Welcome Home!' on the Barbican, Plymouth. Simon, that is
to say Rhodojani, was in love with Lucy Railton, and his conduct,
says she, was strange before leaving; but he pretended to be John
Railton's friend, and, from what you say, must have had an
astonishing influence over the unhappy man. Simon, we learn, is a
scholar," pursued my uncle, after again consulting the letter, "and I
see the word 'office' here, which makes it likely that he was a clerk
of some kind, who took to the sea for some purpose of his own, and
induced Railton to go with him, perhaps for the same purpose, perha