we could examine them. The only message received from you was your acknowledgment and assurance that you had already positively identified Mr. Manling, and were holding him, and that you would be responsible if we held off till all the other passengers were landed."
"Then how," the captain cried in his bewilderment, "how under the sun, gentlemen, did I get these?" he pointed helplessly to the sheets which the officers had returned to him.
The men looked uncertainly from one to the other. The purser knocked, entered, and glanced about with embarrassment, then he moved over to young Preston and handed him a box.
"The steward brought me this from your cabin, sir," he said. "It contains your watch and other personal things, I believe, as well as the rings stolen from Miss Varris. They are all there, are they not?"
"All except the money," Preston smiled as he and the girl examined the things together. "Are all your things there, too, Miss Varris?"
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