too?" I said in quick eagerness. "Yes, tell me
everything."

"No, not everything, for I don't know it myself. But what I know I will
explain as briefly as I can, and leave you to form your own conclusions.
It is," he went on, "a strange--most amazing story. When I myself became
first cognizant of the mystery I was on board the flagship the _Renown_,
under Admiral Sir John Fisher. We were lying in Malta when there arrived
the English yacht _Iris_, owned by Mr. Philip Leithcourt, and among
those on board cruising for pleasure were Mr. Martin Woodroffe, Mr.
Hylton Chater, and the owner's wife and daughter Muriel.

"Muriel and I met first at a tennis-party, and afterwards frequently at
various houses in Malta, for anyone who goes there and entertains is
soon entertained in return. A mutual attachment sprang up between Muriel
and myself," he said, placing his hand tenderly upon hers and smiling,
"and we often met in secret and took long walks, until quite suddenly
Leithcourt said that it was necessary to sail for Smyrna to pick up some
friends who had been traveling in Palestine. The night they sailed a
great consternation was caused on the island by the news that the safe
in the Admiral Superintendent's office had been opened by expert
safe-breakers, and certain most important secret documents stolen."

"Well?" I asked, much interested.

"Again, two months later, when the villa of the Prince of Montevachi, at
Palmero, was broken into and the whole of the famous jewels of the
Princess stolen, it was a very strange fact that the _Iris_ was at the
moment in that port. But it was not until the third occasion, when the
yacht was at Villefranche, and our squadron being at Toulon I got four
days' leave to go along the Riviera, that my suspicions were aroused,
for at the very hour when I was dining at the London House at Nice with
Muriel and a schoolfellow of hers, Elma Heath--who was spending the
winter there with a lady who was Baron Oberg's cousin--that a great
robbery was committed in one of the big hotels up at Cimiez, the wife of
an American millionaire losing jewels valued at thirty thousand pounds.
Then the robberies, coincident with the visit of the yacht, aroused my
strong suspicion. I remarked the nature of those documents stolen from
Malta, and recognized that they could only be of service to a foreign
government. Then came the Leghorn incident of which you told me. The
yacht's name had been changed to the _Lola_, a