first George himself, and then his only child, must disappear from the world.  Two years after his marriage and six months after the birth of my grandson, George was found dead near one of the wells—­asphyxiated, the doctors said, by gas.  I had left the United States upon my nomination as consul to Riga.  The business relating to the partnership was left to an attorney to settle.  Noah Jones behaved vert well, and agreed to all the arrangements that were made for the benefit of my daughter.  He agreed to continue the work, and pay every six months into the Central Bank of New York that part of the net profits which belonged to the infant.  Alas! he never made the first payment.  My daughter took passage in the ‘Cynthia’ in order to join me.  The ‘Cynthia’ was lost with her crew and freight under such suspicious circumstances that the insurance company refused to pay; and in this shipwreck the sole heir of my son-in-law disappeared.

“Noah Jones remained the sole proprietor of the Vandalia, which has yielded him at the least since that event an annual income of one hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year.”

“Did you never suspect that he had had some hand in these successive catastrophies?” asked Mr. Bredejord.

“I have certainly suspected him; it was only too natural.  Such an accumulation of misfortunes, and all tending to his private enrichment, seemed to point him out as the author only too clearly.  But how could I prove my suspicions, particularly in a court of justice?  They were only vague, and I knew too well that they would have but little weight in an international contest.  And then, besides I had my daughter to console, or at least to try and draw away her thoughts from this tragedy, and a lawsuit would only have revived her grief.  Briefly I resigned myself to silence.  Did I do wrong?  Is it to be regretted?”

“I think not, for I feel convinced that it would have produced no results.  You see how difficult it is even today, after we have related all the facts in our possession, to arrive at any definite conclusion!”

“But how can you explain the part which Patrick O’Donoghan has taken in this matter?” asked Dr. Schwaryencrona.

“On this point, as on many others, we are reduced to conjectures, but it seems to me that there is one which is plausible enough.  This O’Donoghan was cabin-boy on board of the ‘Cynthia,’ in the personal service of the captain, and consequently in constant communication with the first-class passengers, who always eat at the captain’s table.  He therefore certainly knew the name of my daughter, and her French origin, and he could easily have found her again.

“Had he been commissioned by Noah Jones to perform some dark mission?  Had he a hand in causing the shipwreck of the ‘Cynthia,’ or simply in pushing the infant into the sea? this they could never know for a certainty since he was dead.  One thing was evident, he was aware how important the knowledge of this fact was for Noah Jones.  But did this lazy drunken man know that the infant was living?  Had he any hand in saving it?  Had he rescued it from the sea to leave it floating near Noroe?