Then the robberies, coincident with the visit of the yacht, aroused my
strong suspicion. I remarked the nature of those documents stolen from
Malta, and recognized that they could only be of service to a foreign
government. Then came the Leghorn incident of which you told me. The
yacht's name had been changed to the _Lola_, and she had been repainted.
I made searching inquiry, and found that on the evening she was
purposely run aground in order to strike up a friendship at the
Consulate, a Russian gunboat was lying in the vicinity. The Consul's
safe was rifled, and the scheme certainly was to transfer anything
obtained from it to the Russian gunboat."
"But what was in the safe?" I asked.
"Fortunately nothing. But you see they knew that our squadron was due in
Leghorn, and that some extremely important despatches were on the way to
the Admiral--secret orders based upon the decision of the British
Cabinet as to the vexed question of Russian ships passing the
Dardanelles--they expected that they would be lodged in the safe until
the arrival of the squadron, as they always are.
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