THE SOUL OF LOGAN BLACK
Wilton Barnstable, the great detective, having witnessed Loge's outburst of wrath, had thought it signified a quarrel between thieves, as his words to Cleggett indicated.He had thought Cleggett a crook, and Loge's ally.
Loge, on the other hand, had thought Cleggett a detective.He had addressed him as "Mr.Detective" that morning at Morris's.Loge believed the Jasper B.and the Annabel Lee to be allied against him.
Whereas Cleggett, until he had recognized Wilton Barnstable in the boat, had thought it likely that the Annabel Lee and Morris's were allied against the Jasper B.
Now that Cleggett knew the commander of the Annabel Lee to beWilton Barnstable, his first impulse was to go to the Great Detective and invite his cooperation against Loge and the gang at Morris's.But almost instantly he reflected that he could not do this.For there was the box of Reginald Maltravers! Indeed, how did he know that it was not the box of Reginald Maltravers which had brought the Great Detective to that vicinity? This man--of world-wide fame, and reputed to possess an almost miraculous instinct in the unraveling of criminal mysteries--might be even now on the trail of Lady Agatha.If so, he was Cleggett's enemy.When it came to a choice between the championship of Lady Agatha and the defiance of Wilton Barnstable, and all that he represented, Cleggett did not hesitate for an instant.
There were still some aspects of the situation in which he found himself that were as puzzling as ever to Cleggett.It is true that he now knew why Loge's men had been in the hold of the vessel; they had been there, no doubt, in an attempt to get possession of the oblong, unpainted box which had caused Loge's explosion of wrath; the box which was the real thing Loge had tried to buy from Cleggett when he dickered for the purchase of the Jasper B.But why this box should have been in the hold of the vessel, Cleggett could not understand.And how Loge's men had been able to get into and out of the hold without his knowledge still perplexed him.
The motive behind the attempt to dynamite the vessel was clear.Having failed to purchase it, having failed to recover the box from it, Loge had sought to destroy it with all on board.But the strange character of this explosion still defied his powers of analysis.And then there was the tenth Earl of Claiborne's signet ring on the dead hand.Beyond the fact that it was a circumstance which connected his fortunes with those of Lady Agatha, he could make nothing at all of the signet ring.What, he asked himself again and again, was the connection of the criminal gang at Morris's with the proudest Earl in England?
Loge himself was a puzzle to Cleggett.The man was a counterfeiter.That he knew.The "queer" twenty-dollar bill, which he had practicallyacknowledged, left no doubt of that.But he was more than a counterfeiter.Cleggett believed him to be also an anarchist.At least he was associated with anarchists.
But counterfeiting and anarchy are not ordinarily found together.The anarchist is not a criminal in the more sordid sense.He is the enemy of society as at present organized.He considers society to be built on a thieving basis; he is not himself a thief.He scorns and hates society, wishes to see it overturned, and believes himself superior to it.He will commit the most savage atrocities for the cause and cheerfully die for his principles.The anarchist is not a crook.He is an idealist.
Convinced that the unpainted oblong box would furnish a clew to the man's real personality, Cleggett, assisted by Lady Agatha and Dr.Farnsworth, opened it in the cabin.
They first took out a number of plates, some broken, some intact, for the manufacture of counterfeit notes of various denominations.There was some of the fibrous paper used in this process.There was a quantity of the apparatus essential to engraving the plates.This stuff more than half filled the box.Then there were a number of books.
"Elementary textbooks," said Dr.Farnsworth, glancing at them.On the flyleaf of one of them was written in a bold, firm hand: "Logan Black.""Loge--or Logan Black," said Dr.Farnsworth, "has been giving himself an education in the manufacture of high explosives.""But THESE aren't textbooks," said Lady Agatha, who had pulled out three long, narrow volumes from the pile."They're in manuscript, and they look more like account books."The first of them, in Loge's handwriting, contained a series of notes, mostly unintelligible to Cleggett, dealing with experiments in two sorts of manufacture: first, the preparation of counterfeit money; second, the production of dynamite bombs.
The second of the manuscript books was in cipher.Cleggett might have deciphered it without assistance, for he was skilled in these matters,but the labor was not necessary.The book was for Loge's own eye.A loose sheet of paper folded between the leaves gave the key.
