I have said that the story of Flora de Barral was imparted to me in stages. At this stage I
did not see Marlow for some time. At last, one evening rather early, very soon after
dinner, he turned up in my rooms.
I had been waiting for his call primed with a remark which had not occurred to me till
after he had gone away.
"I say," I tackled him at once, "how can you be certain that Flora de Barral ever went to
sea? After all, the wife of the captain of the Ferndale--" the lady that mustn't be
disturbed "of the old ship- keeper--may not have been Flora."
"Well, I do know," he said, "if only because I have been keeping in touch with Mr.
Powell."
"You have!" I cried. "This is the first I hear of it. And since when?"
"Why, since the first day. You went up to town leaving me in the inn. I slept ashore. In
the morning Mr. Powell came in for breakfast; and after the first awkwardness of
meeting a man you have been yarning with over-night had worn off, we discovered a
liking for each other."
As I had discovered the fact of their mutual liking before either of them, I was not
surprised.
"And so you kept in touch," I said.
"It was not so very difficult. As he was always knocking about the river I hired Dingle's
sloop-rigged three-tonner to be more on an equality. Powell was friendly but elusive. I
don't think he ever wanted to avoid me. But it is a fact that he used to disappear out of
the river in a very mysterious manner sometimes. A man may land anywhere and bolt
inland--but what about his five-ton cutter? You can't carry that in your hand like a suit-
case.
"Then as suddenly he would reappear in the river, after one had given him up. I did not
like to be beaten. That's why I hired Dingle's decked boat. There was just the
accommodation in her to sleep a man and a dog. But I had no dog-friend to invite.
Fyne's dog who saved Flora de Barral's life is the last dog-friend I had. I was rather
lonely cruising about; but that, too, on the river has its charm, sometimes. I chased the
mystery of the vanishing Powell dreamily, looking about me at the ships, thinking of the
girl Flora, of life's chances--and, do you know, it was very simple."
