"That was why I bought them, certainly," he admitted. "But I brought
them with me for quite a different purpose, for which one would indeed
have been enough. I was saying, however, that the best way to sink one's
identity is to assume another, provided that the second be as
distinctive as the first. We will leave for a moment the question of my
officiousness in the matter, and we'll suppose, for the sake of
argument, that I was authorized by you to do what in fact I have done.
All last week the papers were literally full of your trial, but on
Saturday there was a second sensation as well, and this morning it is
hard to say which is first and which second; they both occupy so many
columns. You may not know it, but the Cape liner due on Saturday was
lost with scores of lives, off Finisterre, on Friday morning last."
Rachel failed to see the connection, and yet she felt vaguely that there
was one, if she could but recall it; meanwhile she said nothing, but
listened with as much attention as a mental search would permit.
"I heard of it first," continued Steel, "late on Friday afternoon, as I
came away from the Old Bailey.
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