I could not speak. She seemed to read the tragic look on my
haggard face and stopped.

"Why," she gasped, clutching at the desk, "what is the matter?"

As gently as I could, I told her of the chase, of leaving Craig,
of the explosion, of the marks of the struggle and of the finding
of Wu Fang.

As I finished, I thought she would faint.

"And you--you went over everything about the wharf?"

"Everything. The men even dragged for the--"

I checked myself over the fateful word.

Elaine looked at me wildly. I thought that she would lose her
reason. She did not cry. The shock was too great for that.

Suddenly I remembered the note. "Before I left him--the last
time," I blurted out, "he wrote a note--to you."

I pulled the crumpled paper from my pocket and Elaine almost tore
it from me--the last word from him--and read:

DEAREST:

I may not return until the case is settled and I have found the
stolen torpedo. Matters involving millions of lives and billions