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There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans,

and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the

orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as

resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very

severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for

news of the Lone Star of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We

did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a

shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough of

a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is all

which we shall ever know of the fate of the _Lone Star_.

VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP