He then walked up and down between the watch house and
the club.
He had, when he landed, intended to go to the police office as soon
as he had inquired at the landing stages--the natural impulse of an
Englishman who has suffered loss or wrong--but the more he thought
it over the more inexpedient did such a course seem to him. It was
highly improbable--indeed, it seemed to him impossible--that they
could do more than he had in the matter. The passage of two ladies
through the crowded streets would scarcely have attracted the
attention of anyone, and any idea of violence being used was out of
the question. If they had landed, which he now regarded as very
improbable, they must have at least gone willingly to the place
where they believed they should find him, and unless every house in
Cowes was searched from top to bottom there was no chance of
finding them, carefully hidden away as they would be. He could not
see, therefore, that the police could at present be of any utility
whatever. It might be necessary finally to obtain the aid of the
police, but in that case it was Scotland Yard and not Cowes that
the matter must be laid before; and even this should be only a last
resort, for above all things it was necessary for Bertha's sake
that the matter should be kept a profound secret, and, once in the
hands of the police, it would be in all the papers the next day.
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