“Laura!” she exclaimed, wonderingly. “Why, it’s Laura!”
They all turned around. A young woman had just entered the hotel, followed by a porter carrying some luggage. Her arm was in a sling and there was a bandage around her forehead. She walked, too, with the help of a stick. She recognized them at once and waved it gaily.
“Hullo, you people?” she cried. “Soon run you to earth, eh?”
They were for a moment dumbfounded; Lenora was the first to find words. “But when did you start, Laura?” she asked. “I thought you were too ill to move for weeks.”
The girl smiled contemptuously.
“I left three days after you, on the Kaiser Frederic,” she replied. “There was some trouble at Plymouth, and we came into Southampton early this morning, and here I am. But, before we go any farther, tell me about Craig?”
“We’ve had him,” Quest confessed, “and lost him again. He escaped last night.”
“Where from?” Laura asked.
“Hamblin House.”
“Is that anywhere near the south coast?” the girl demanded excitedly.
“It’s not far away,” Quest replied quickly. “Why?”
“I’ll tell you why,” Laura explained. “I was as sure of it as any one could be. Craig passed me in Southampton Water this morning, being rowed out to a steamer. Not only that but he recognized me. I saw him draw back and hide his face, but somehow I couldn’t believe that it was really he. I was just coming down the gangway and I nearly fell into the sea, I was so surprised.”
Quest was already turning over the pages of a time-table.
“What was the steamer?” he demanded.
“I found out,” Laura told him. “I tell you, I was so sure of it’s being Craig that I made no end of enquiries. It was the Barton, bound for India, with first stop at Port Said.”
“When does she sail?” Quest asked.
“To-night—somewhere about seven,” Laura replied.
Quest glanced at the clock and threw down the time-table. He turned towards the door. They all followed him.
“I’m for Southampton,” he announced. “I’m going to try to get on board that steamer before she sails. Lenora, you’d better go upstairs and lie down. They’ll give you a room here. Don’t you stir out till I come back. Professor, what about you?”
“I shall accompany you,” the Professor declared. “The discomforts of travelling without luggage are nothing compared with the importance of discovering this human fiend.”
“Luggage—pshaw!” Laura exclaimed. “Who cares about that?”
“And nothing,” Lenora declared firmly, as she caught at Quest’s arm, “would keep me away.”
“I’ll telephone to Scotland Yard, in case they care to send a man down,” Quest decided. “We must remember, though,” he reminded them, “that it will very likely be a wild-goose chase.”
“It won’t be the first,” Laura observed grimly, “but Craig’s on board that ship all right.”…
They caught a train to Southampton, where they were joined by a man from Scotland Yard. The little party drove as quickly as possible to the docks.
“Where does the Barton start from?” Quest asked the pier-master.
The man pointed a little way down the harbor.
“She’s not in dock, sir,” he said. “She’s lying out yonder. You’ll barely catch her, I’m afraid,” he added, glancing at the clock.
They hurried to the edge of the quay.
“Look here,” Quest cried, raising his voice, “I’ll give a ten pound note to any one who gets me out to the Barton before she sails.”
The little party were almost thrown into a tug, and in a few minutes they were skimming across the smooth water. Just as they reached the steamer, however, she began to move.
“Run up alongside,” Quest ordered.
“She won’t stop, sir,” the Captain of the tug replied doubtfully. “She is an hour late, as it is.”
“Do as I tell you,” Quest insisted.
They raced along by the side of the great steamer. An officer came to the rail and shouted down to them.
“What do you want?”
“The Captain,” Quest replied.
The Captain came down from the bridge, where he had been conferring with the pilot.
“Keep away from the side there,” he shouted. “Who are you?”
“We are in search of a desperate criminal whom we believe to be on board your steamer,” Quest explained. “Please take us on board.”
The Captain shook his head.
“Are you from Scotland Yard?” he asked. “Have you got your warrant?”
“We are from America,” Quest answered, “but we’ve got a Scotland Yard man with us, and a warrant, right enough.”
“Any extradition papers?”
“No time to get them yet,” Quest replied, “but the man’s wanted for murder.”
“Are you from the New York police?”
Quest shook his head.
“I am a private detective,” he announced. “I am working in conjunction with the New York Police.”
The Captain shook his head.
“I am over an hour late,” he said, “and it’s costing me fifty pounds a minute. If I take you on board, you’ll have to come right along with me, unless you find the fellow before we’ve left your tug behind.”
Quest turned around.
“Will you risk it?” he asked.
“Yes!” they all replied.
“We’re coming, Captain,” Quest decided.
A rope ladder was let down. The steamer began to slow.
“Can you girls manage it?” Quest asked doubtfully.
Laura smiled.
“I should say so,” she replied. “I can go up that with only one arm. You watch me!”
They cheered her on board the steamer as she hobbled up. The others followed. The tug, the crew of which had been already well paid, raced along by the side. The Captain spoke once more to the pilot and came down from the bridge.
“I’m forced to go full speed ahead to cross the bar,” he told Quest. “I’m sorry, but the tide’s just on the turn.”
They looked at one another a little blankly.
The Professor, however, beamed upon them all.
“I have always understood,” he said, “that Port Said is a most interesting place.”
CHAPTER XI
THE SHIP OF HORROR
Quest leaned a little forward and gazed down the line