“On the steamer—­a few hours after we left Christiania,” replied Celia.

“Just as fellow-passengers, I suppose?”

“Quite so—­just that.  We sat next to each other at meals.”

“Do you know where his cabin was on the steamer?”

“Yes, exactly opposite my own.  He and I, I believe, were the only passengers who had cabins all to ourselves.”

“Did he ever mention to you these valuables which Mr. Fullaway tells us he was carrying to England!”

“No—­never at any time.”

“Did you see him leave the Perisco for the shore?”

“Why, yes, certainly!  As a matter of fact, he and I came ashore at Hull together, ahead of any other passengers.  After Lisette had left the steamer with her brother, I happened to come across Mr. James Allerdyke.  I told him what had just occurred, and asked him if he would help me about my things, as my maid had gone.  He immediately suggested that we shouldn’t wait for the tender, but should get a boat of our own—­there were several lying around.  He said he was in a great hurry to get ashore, because he’d a friend awaiting him at the Station Hotel.  So he got a boat, and his things and mine were put into it, and we left the steamer, and were rowed to the landing-stage, just opposite.”

“And you, of course, carried your jewel-case—­or what you believed to be your jewel-case—­the duplicate chest which you subsequently carried to Edinburgh?”

“Yes, of course—­I had it in my hand when Lisette left, and, I never left hold of it until I got into the hotel.”

“Do you remember if Mr. James Allerdyke carried anything in his hand?”

“Yes, he carried a hand-bag.  He had that bag in his hand when I met him on deck; he kept it on his knee in the boat, and in the cab in which we drove to the hotel from the landing-stage; I saw him carrying it upstairs after we got to the hotel.  What is more, I saw him bring it into the coffee-room later on, and place it on the table at which he had some supper.  I saw it again in his room when I went in there to look at the plans of the Norwegian estate which he had told me about.  He didn’t take those plans out of that hand-bag; he took them out of a side flap-pocket in a suit-case.”

“Did you have supper with him that night?”

“No—­I was sitting at another table, talking to a lady who had been with us on the Perisco.  A lot of Perisco passengers—­twenty, at least—­had come to the hotel by that time.”

“Did any of them join Mr. James Allerdyke—­at his table, I mean?”

“I don’t remember—­no, I think not.  He sat at a table, one end of which adjoined the wall—­he put the hand-bag at that end.  I remember wondering why he carried his bag about with him.  But then I, of course, was carrying what I believed to be my jewel-case.”

“Did you see him talking to any of your fellow-passengers that night?”

“Oh, yes—­to two or three of them—­in the hall of the hotel.  I didn’t know who they were, particularly—­except the doctor with the big beard.  I saw him talking to Mr. Allerdyke at the door of the smoking-room.”