The Professor shrugged his shoulders. “Ask our landlord, when we return to the inn,” he replied. “He is a most communicative man, and will, no doubt, be delighted to tell you the story, as he told it to me. I had the same doubts as you have expressed, and it was these doubts which brought me down here. I enquired for Morlandson’s history as tactfully as I could, and I examined the scene of his death, as I shall ask you to.”

“I am quite prepared to accept your statement, Professor,” said Hanslet. “How did it happen?”

The Professor recounted the facts of Morlandson’s life on the Isle of Purbeck, and the circumstances under which he met his death. “All these things can of course be verified,” he said, as he came to the end of his story. “It was while I was engaged in verifying them yesterday evening that I met with an adventure which can only be described as amazing. You will remember the man described as the Black Sailor, first seen by Wal Snyder at the time of the murder of Tovey the greengrocer, and subsequently by Copperdock?”