Chapter 4
THE MEGANTIC was at the dock. Canvas-covered gangways, gaily striped, red-carpeted, and brightly lit, stretched from ship to shore. Funnels of mystery thrust into the bottle-neck of the New World, they seemed to Dene as, his overcoat on his arm and his suitcase in his hand, he prepared to join the slow-moving throng of passengers and set foot on American soil. He had reached the gangway when a thought struck him. There might be a message for him at the purser’s office— he’d better enquire. He turned back.
A large man in a Panama monopolized the attention of the only clerk on duty at the desk— the others were busy in the rear of the office. Dene set his suitcase down and waited. More from habit than anything else, he studied the individual ahead of him. ‘Detective,’ his trained
