don-Morrison Line!" he observed. "Tilbury to Sheppey twice
daily. Passengers are requested not to speak to the man at the wheel."

"I think, Tommy," I said, "that we must make an exception in the case
of Mr. Latimer."

CHAPTER XX

APPROACHING A SOLUTION

A Chinese proverb informs us that "there are three hundred and
forty-six subjects for elegant conversation," but during the trip down
I think that Tommy and I confined ourselves almost exclusively to two.
One was Mr. Bruce Latimer, and the other was Joyce's amazing discovery
about McMurtrie and Marks.

Concerning the latter Tommy was just as astonished and baffled as I
was.

"I'm blessed if I know what to think about it, Neil," he admitted. "If
it was any one else but Joyce, I should say she'd made a mistake. What
on earth could McMurtrie have had to do with that Jew beast?"

"Joyce seems to think he had quite a lot to do with him," I said.

Tommy nodded. "I know. She's made up her mind he did the job all
right; but, hang it all, one doesn't go and murder people without any
conceivable reason."

"I can conceive plenty of excellent reasons for murdering Marks," I
said impartially. "I should hardly think they would have appealed to
McMurtrie, though. The chief thing that makes me suspicious about him
is the fact of his knowing George and hiding it from me all this
time. I suppose that was how he got hold of his information about the
powder. George was almost the only person who knew of it."

"I always thought the whole business was a devilish odd one," growled
Tommy; "but the more one finds out about it the queerer it seems to
get. These people of yours--McMurtrie and Savaroff--are weird enough
customers on their own, but when it comes to their being mixed up with
both George _and_ Marks ..." he paused. "It will turn out next that
Latimer's in it too," he added half-mockingly.

"I shouldn't wonder," I said. "I can't swallow everything he told you,
Tommy. It leaves too much unexplained. You see, I'm pretty certain
that the chap who tried to do him in is one of McMurtrie's crowd, and
in that case--"

"In that case," interrupted Tommy, with a short laugh, "we ought to
have rather an interesting evening. Seems to me, Neil, we're what you
might call burning our boats this journey."

The old compunction I had felt at first against dragging Tommy and
Joyce into my affairs suddenly came back to me with renewed force.

"I'm a selfish brute, Thomas," I sai