Considerably to our amazement, however, we happened to be successful at the first cast.
A man signing himself Henry Gifford had applied for a first-class passage to Colombo, with the intention of changing at that port into another steamer for Hong Kong.
"What was he like ?" I inquired of the clerk; "and did anything strike you as peculiar about him or his appearance ?" "Well, there was one thing," he said.

"And at the time I must say I thought it funny.

When I asked him his name, he began 'Gideon,' and then suddenly corrected himself and said 'Henry Gifford.' I remember wondering whether he was using a false name or not.

He booked his passage at the last moment, and seemed in a great hurry to get aboard--being afraid he would miss the boat." I questioned him as to the man's general appearance, and when I had learned all he had to tell us, I was perfectly satisfied in my own mind that Hayle was the man who had gone aboard.
"He didn't lose much time," said Leglosse.

"Mark my words, he'll leave the steamer at Port Said, and will either come back on his own tracks, or go up the Palestine Coast to Jaffa, and thence back to Europe.