The sun. (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1905-1908, 1906-01-20
CHAPTER III.


Detectives called examined the safe, and sagely
declared 1t to be burgarproof, had not the thieves
possessed the key. The Foreign Office knew that for
they supply all the safes to the Consuates abroad
IN order that the precious cphers shall be kept from
the prying eyes OF foreign spies. The Questore or
chief of police of the opinion that it was the
cphers of which the thieves had been in Search and
was much relieved to hear that they were in safe.
keeping far away in Downing Street.
His conjecture the same as my own, namely
that the reason for Hornbys call upon me was to
ascertain the situation of the Consulate and the
whereabouts of the SAFE which, by the way stood in
corner of the Consuls private room Captain
Macintosh too, had taken his bearings, and prob.
ably while sat at dinner board the Lola my keys
had been stolen and passed to the Scared Scots
man, who had promptly gone ashore and ransacled
the place while l had remained with his master
smoking and unconscious.
But what was the motive? Why had they ran.
sacked all those confidential papersy
My own idea was that they were not in search
of the ciphers at ALL but either wanted some blank
form other or else they desired to make use of the
Consular seal The latter, however, still remained
the floor the safe, though it had rolled out
and been left unheeded As far Francesca and
could ascertain, nothing whatever had been taken.
Therefore, we rearranged the papers, relocked the
safe and resolved not to telegraph to Hutcheson
unduly disturb him. as in few days he would return
from England, and there would be time enough then
to explain the remarkable story.
One fact, however, established The de-
tectve on duty at the railway station distinctly
recollected thin middleaged man, accompanied by
a lady in deep black, passing the barrier and enter
ing the train which left ut o'clock for Cole Sal
vetti to join the Rome express. They foreign
ers, therefore he did not take the same notice of
them as though they had been Italians. Inquiries
at the booking Office showed, however, that no pas
sengers had booked direct to Rome by the train IN
question. To GrOssettO, Cecina, Campiglia and the
other places in the Maremma, passengers had taken
tickets, but not one had been booked to any of the
great towns. Therefore it apparent that that
the mysterious pair who had come ashore just prior
to the sailing of the yacht had merely taken tickets
for false destination, and had rebooked at Cole
Savetti the junction with that long main line which
connects Genoa with Rome.
The police were puzzled. The two fishermen who
sighted the Lola and first gave the alarm of her dan
GER declared that when they drew alongside and
profered assistance the captain threatened to shoot
the first man who came aboard
"They were Englishp' remarked the sturdy,
brOwn-faced tOers of the sea, grnning knowingly.
"And the English, when they drink their cognac,
know not what they do"
"Did you get any reward for returning to harbor
and reportingP" l asked
REWARD" echoed one of the men, the elder of
the pair. "Not a soldo! The English only cursed
US for interfering That is why we believed that
they were trying to make away with the vessel"
The description of the Lola, its owner, his guest,
and the captain circulated by the police to all
the Mediterranean ports with a request that the
yacht should be detained. Yet if the vessel were
would no doubt go across to quiet anchorage
the Algerian coast out of the track of the vessels,
and calmly proceed to repaint rename and disguise
his craft that it would not be recognized in Mar
settles, Naples, Smyrna any of the ports where
private yachts habtually call Thus, from the very
first, it seemed to me that Horribly and his friends
had very cleverly tricked me for some mysterious
purpose, and afterwards ingeniously evaded their
watchers and got clean away.
Had the Italian Admiral been able to send
torpedoboat or two after the fugitives they would
no doubt soon have been overhaued yet circum-
stances had prevented this and the Lola had conse-
quently escaped.
For purposes of their own the police kept the
affair out of the papers, and when Frank Hutchinson
stepped out of the sleeping car from Paris on to the
platform at Pisa few nights afterward, l related
to him the extraordinary story.
'"The scoundrels wanted these that's evident,
he responded, holding up the small strong, leather
handbag he was carrying, and which contained his
ieaously. guarded ciphers. "By Jove!" he laughed,
1how disappointed they must have been!"
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