orth. The stuff is near
Blyth! Dead certain!"

"I dare say you're right," he said slowly. "And as I've found out all
there is to find out here in Hull, I suppose a return to Blyth is the
most advisable thing. After all, we know what to look out for on that
coast--a twenty-ton yawl, with an Englishman, a Frenchman, and a
Chinaman aboard her. Very well."

So that afternoon, after seeing the ship-broker again, and making
certain arrangements with him in case he heard anything of the
_Blanchflower_ and her crew of three queerly-assorted individuals, we
retraced our steps northward. But while Scarterfield turned off at
Newcastle for Tynemouth and Blyth, I went forward alone, for Alnwick
and Ravensdene Court.

CHAPTER XVI

THE PATHLESS WOOD

Being very late in the evening when I arrived at Alnwick, I remained
there for that night, and it was not until noon of the next day that I
once more reached Ravensdene Court. Lorrimore was there, he had come
over to lunch, and for the moment I hoped that he had brought some
news from his Chinese servant. But he had heard nothing of Wing since
his departure: it would scarcely be Wing's method, he said, to
communicate with him by letter; when he had anything to tell, he would
either return or act, of his own initiative, upon his acquired
information: the way of the Chinaman, he remarked with a knowing look
at Mr. Raven, was dark, subtle, and not easily understandable to
Western minds.

"And yourself, Middlebrook?" asked Mr. Raven. "What did the detective
want, and what have you found out?"

I told them the whole story as we sat at lunch. They were all deeply
absorbed, but no one so much as Mr. Cazalette, who, true to his
principle of doing no more than crumbling a dry biscuit and sipping a
glass or two of sherry at that hour, gave my tale of the doings at
Blyth and Hull his undivided attention. And when he had heard me out,
he slipped away in silence, evidently very thoughtful, and
disappeared into the library.

"So there it all is," I said in conclusion, "and if anybody can make
head or tail of it and get a definite and dependable theory, I am sure
that Scarterfield, from a professional standpoint, will be glad to
hear whatever can be said."

"It seems to me that Scarterfield is on the high road to a very
respectable theory already," remarked Lorrimore. "So are you! The
thing--to me--appears to be fairly plain. It starts out with the
association of Baxter and the dis