The murder was committed on the night of the nineteenth of July, or, in other words, forty-six days later.

With all speed I set off to the office of the Royal Mail Steamship Company, where I asked to be shown their passenger-list for the vessel that arrived on the nineteenth of July.
When it was handed to me I scanned it eagerly in the hope of discovering an Italian name.

There were at least a dozen in the steerage, and one in the first-class.

I was relieved, however, to find that all but the first-class passengers had disembarked at Cairns, further up the coast.
The name of the exception was Steffano Gairdi, and he was a passenger from Naples.
"You can't tell me anything more definite about this gentleman, I suppose ?" I said to the clerk who was attending to me.

"Did you happen to see him ?" "He was in here only this morning," the man replied.
"Here, when ?" I inquired, with such surprise that the other clerks looked up from their books at me in astonishment.