“Having found out what Penzance could tell me, I beat it up to Dartmouth, because I was exceedingly anxious to learn, if possible, the exact date when Giuseppe Doria entered the employment of Bendigo Redmayne as motor boatman.  Albert’s brother hadn’t any friends that I could find; but I traced his doctor and, though he was not in a position to enlighten me, he knew another man—­an innkeeper at Tor-cross, some miles away on the coast—­who might be familiar with this vital date.

“Mr. Noah Blades proved a very shrewd and capable chap.  Bendigo Redmayne had known him well, and it was after spending a week at the Tor-cross Hotel with Blades and going fishing in his motor boat, that the old sailor had decided to start one himself at ’Crow’s Nest.’  He did so and his first boatman was a failure.  Then he advertised for another and received a good many applications.  He’d sailed with Italians and liked them on a ship, and he decided for Giuseppe Doria, whose testimonials appeared to be exceptional.  The man came along and, two days after his arrival, ran Bendigo down to Tor-cross in his launch to see Blades.

“Redmayne, of course, was full of the murder at Princetown, which had just occurred, and the tragedy proved so interesting that Blades had little time to notice the new motor boatman.  But what matters is that we know it was on the day after the murder—­on the very day Bendigo heard what his brother, Robert, was supposed to have done at Foggintor Quarry—­that his new man, Giuseppe Doria, arrived at ‘Crow’s Nest’ and took on his new duties.

“From that all-important fact I built my case, and you don’t need to be told how every step of the way threw light upon the next until I had reached the goal.  Robert Redmayne is seen on the night of Michael Pendean’s supposed destruction.  He is traced home again to Paignton.  He leaves his diggings before anybody is up and, from that exit, vanishes off the face of the earth.  But during the same day—­probably by noon—­Giuseppe Doria arrives at ’Crow’s Nest’—­an Italian whom nobody knows, or has even seen before.

“That meant good-bye to any theory of a half brother for Michael; and it also meant that not Pendean, but his wife’s uncle, Robert Redmayne, perished on Dartmoor.  And there he lies yet, my son!”

Mr. Ganns took snuff and proceeded.

“Now, having made this tremendous deduction, I looked over all the facts again and they became very much more interesting.  Every moment I expected some crushing blow to shake my structure; at every turn I guessed a certainty would come along and bowl my theory over; but no such thing happened.  Details, of course, there are—­many little pieces of the puzzle now known to only one man alive, and that is Pendean himself; but the main incidents, the true picture, loomed out clear enough for me before I left Dartmouth and came back to Albert in London.  The big things were all, not there to be shaken.  The picture was fogged at certain points, but I had no doubt as to what it represented, and even the incredible details that seemed to contradict reason were composed and cleaned up when Michael Pendean’s own temperament was brought as a solvent to them.