That day was an active one in Questura, or police office, of Leghorn.
Detectives called, examined the safe, and sagely declared it to be
burglar-proof, had not the thieves possessed the key. The Foreign Office
knew that, for they supply all the safes to the Consulates abroad, in
order that the precious ciphers shall be kept from the prying eyes of
foreign spies. The Questore, or chief of police, was of opinion that it
was the ciphers of which the thieves had been in search, and was much
relieved to hear that they were in safekeeping far away in Downing
Street.
His conjecture was the same as my own, namely, that the reason of
Hornby's call upon me was to ascertain the situation of the Consulate
and the whereabouts of the safe, which, by the way, stood in a corner of
the Consul's private room. Captain Mackintosh, too, had taken his
bearings, and probably while I sat at dinner on board the Lola my keys
had been stolen and passed on to the scarred Scotsman, who had promptly
gone ashore and ransacked the place while I had remained with his master
smoking and unsuspicious.
But what was the motive? Why had they ransacked all those confidential
papers?
My own idea was that they were not in search of the ciphers at all, but
either wanted some blank form or other, or else they desired to make use
of the Consular seal. The latter, however, still remained on the floor
near the safe, as though it had rolled out and been left unheeded. As
far as Francesco and I could ascertain, nothing whatever had been taken. Therefore, we re-arranged the papers, re-locked the safe and resolved not to telegraph to Hutcheson and unduly disturb him, as in a few days he would return from England, and there would be time enough then to explain the remarkable story.
One fact, however, we established. The detective on duty at the railway
station distinctly recollected a thin middle-aged man, accompanied by a
lady in deep black, passing the barrier and entering the train which
left at three o'clock for Colle Salvetti to join the Rome express. They
were foreigners, therefore he did not take the same notice of them as
though they had been Italians. Inquiries at the booking-office showed, however, that no passengers had booked direct to Rome by the train in question. To Grossetto, Cecina, Campiglia, and the other places in the Maremma, passengers had taken tickets, but not one had been booked to any of the great towns. Therefore it was apparent that the mysterious pair who had come ashore just prior to the sailing of the yacht had merely taken tickets for a false destination, and had re-booked at Colle Salvetti, the junction with that long main line which connects Genoa with Rome.
The police were puzzled. The two fishermen who sighted the Lola and
first gave the alarm of her danger, declared that when they drew
alongside and proffered assistance the captain threatened to shoot the
first man who came aboard.
"They were English!" remarked the sturdy, brown-faced toilers of the
sea, grinning knowingly. "And the English, when they drink their cognac, know not what they do."
"Did you get any reward for returning to harbor and reporting?" I
asked.
"Reward!" echoed one of the men, the elder of the pair. "Not a soldo! The English only cursed us for interfering. That is why we believed that they were trying to make away with the vessel."
The description of the Lola, its owner, his guest, and the captain
were circulated by the police to all the Mediterranean ports, with a
request that the yacht should be detained. Yet if the vessel were really
one of mystery, as it seemed to be, its owner would no doubt go across
to some quiet anchorage on the Algerian coast out of the track of the
vessels, and calmly proceed to repaint, rename and disguise his craft so
that it would not be recognized in Marseilles, Naples, Smyrna, or any of
the ports where private yachts habitually call. Thus, from the very
first, it seemed to me that Hornby and his friends had very cleverly
tricked me for some mysterious purpose, and afterwards ingeniously
evaded their watchers and got clean away.
Had the Italian Admiral been able to send a torpedo-boat or two after
the fugitives they would no doubt soon have been overhauled, yet
circumstances had prevented this and the Lola had consequently
escaped.