“This morning the trawler was working a little north of Eden and about eight miles off shore. The Eden police got a launch-man there to go out and speak her. He spoke her at a little after twelve o’clock, and she hadn’t sighted theDo-me up till then. The Eden launch then patrolled for an hour or two without result. She has just returned to port, and I have just had her report through the Eden station.”

After this long and detailed statement Constable Telfer stared at Blade with a positive satisfaction in his prominent eyes. Blade looked away and gazed thoughtfully at his typewriter. A period of seconds passed, when he said:

“That doesn’t sound so good.”

Telfer snorted and continued.

“Before I came here I walked down to the jetty and had a talk with Harry Low. TheLilyG. Excel didn’t go out today. Low reckons it don’t sound any too good, either, because this morning the sea was flat and the visibility was extra good. The men on the bridge of the trawler would have been looking for theDo-me, and they could have seen her mast at eight miles, if not a mile or two more.”

The two men fell silent, Telfer vigorously drawing at his old pipe. Blade drumming the fingers of one hand on a paper lying on the table. In his mind the affair of theDo-me was now growing big with portent. After a while, Telfer asked:

“What could happen to a launch out on the ocean, alone, cut off from human sight and contact by a haze?”

“Happen! Oh!… She could catch fire. But if theDo-me had caught fire yesterday, the smoke would have been observed by Remmings, and perhaps, by the trawler. And then theDo-me carried a small boat, and those on her could very easily have rowed ashore.”

“Low says-” Telfer began. “Low one time was whaling down at Eden, and he says that a whale could come up to blow under a launch and capsize her without giving any warning to those on board.”