"Because this is a public vessel--that is, public in as much as all
properly accredited persons who desire may go to England on her.
Lieutenant Secor must have his passport, or he wouldn't be here. And, as
this is a public place, he has as much right here as we have.

"And of course if you had asked him, Joe, especially with the show of
indignation you're wearing now, he would have told you, and with perfect
right, that he had as much business here as you have. He didn't follow
us here; I think he was on board ahead of us. But if he did follow us,
he did no more than some of these other passengers did, who came up the
gangplank after us. This is a public boat."

Joe looked at his chum a moment, and then a smile replaced the frown on
his face.

"Well, I guess you're right," he announced. "I forgot that anybody might
come aboard as well as ourselves. But it does look queer--his coming
here so soon after he spoiled our films; whether intentionally or not
doesn't matter."

"Well, I agree with you there--that it does look funny," said Blake
Stewart. "But we mustn't let that fact get the better of our judgment.
If there's anything wrong here, we've got to find it out, and we can't
do it by going off half cocked."

"Well, there's something wrong, all right," said Charlie Anderson,
smiling at his apparently contradictory statement. "And we'll find out
what it is, too! But I guess you're right, Blake. We've got to go slow.
I'm going below to see if our stuff is safe."