imbecile who stopped in Cincinnati and mailed you the bloody shirt
to throw you off the scent. Meantime the colonel took Roderick
around by a sea route, probably New York and New Orleans."

"That'd explain the steamer rug and the seasickness," admitted
Doctor Hoff; "but I don't know what he'd want to go that long way
for."

"Simple enough, when you reckon with this colonel person as having
brains in his head. He would foresee a hue and cry as soon as the
young man disappeared. So he cooks up this trip to keep his prey
out of touch with the newspapers for the few days when the news of
the disappearance would be fresh enough to be spread abroad in the
Associated Press dispatches. From New Orleans they'd go on west by
train."

"What I don't see is how they caught Roddy on such an old game.
He's easy, but I didn't s'pose he was that easy."

"To do him justice, he isn't--quite. They put it up on him rather
cleverly. In the period of waiting to hear from the geographical
expert I've put in some fairly hard work, going over your son's
effects. And, in the room over Silent Charley's bar, I found a
newspaper with this in it."

He handed to Doctor Hoff a thin clipping, marked "Daily Saw, March
29":

LOST--Spanish letter and map.
Of no value except to owner, Return