“What explanation can you give of his sudden disappearance?”

“None whatever, sir.”

“Then, in the demon’s name, why have you come forward at all at this time?”

“Because I was advertised for.”

“That was months ago.”

“But months ago I was at sea and knew nothing of the matter.  I have but just returned from a long voyage, and hearing among other matters that Governor Rothsay had been missing since the day of his inauguration, that Governor Kennedy reigned in his stead, and that the latest visitor of the missing man had long been wanting, I have come.”

“Do you appreciate the gravity of your own position, sir, under the circumstances?” sternly demanded the Iron King.

“I—­don’t—­understand you,” said the skipper, in evident perplexity.

“You don’t?  That is strange.  You are the last man—­the last person—­who saw Governor-elect Rothsay alive, at eleven o’clock on the night of his disappearance.  After that hour he was missing, and you had run away.”

The young sailor smiled.

“Steamed away, and sailed away, you should say, sir.  I see the suspicion to which your words point, and will answer them at once:  On that night in question I was a guest of the Crockett House.  I was absent from that house only half an hour—­from a quarter to eleven to a quarter after eleven—­during which time I walked to this house, saw the governor-elect, and walked back to the hotel, only to pay my bill, take a hack and drive to the railway station.  Do you think that in half an hour I could have done all that and murdered the governor, and made away with his body besides, Mr. Rockharrt?”

“You would have to prove the truth of your words, sir,” replied the Iron King.

“That is easily done by the people at the hotel.  I did not tell them where I was going.  I never even thought of telling them.  But they know I was only gone half an hour; for before going out, or just as I was going out, I ordered the carriage to be ready to take me to the depot at a quarter past eleven.”

“They may have forgotten all about you.”

“Not at all.  I am an old customer, though a young man.  They know me very well.”

“Then it is very strange that when every anxious inquiry was made for this latest visitor of the governor-elect, these hotel people did not come forward and name you.”

“But I repeat, sir, that they did not know that I was that latest visitor.  I did not think of telling any one that I was going to see Rothsay before I went, or of telling them that I had been to see him after I went.  They had no more reason to identify me with that late caller than any other guest at the hotel, or, in fact, any other man in the world.  Come, Mr. Rockharrt, you have complimented me with one of the blackest suspicions that could wrong an honest man, but I will not quarrel with you.  I know very well that the last person seen with a missing man is often suspected of his taking off.  As for me, I invite the most searching investigation.”