A couple of hours later Calamity, with the Lieutenant and Mr. Vayne—the latter having been permitted to accompany them in his character of solicitor to the accused—was ushered into a spacious room where several men sat round a large table, at the head of which was a bronzed, hard-featured man in naval uniform, evidently the president.

"You are John Brighouse, otherwise known as Captain Calamity, I believe?" said the latter, addressing the prisoner.

"That is correct," answered the Captain.

"Briefly, the charge against you is that you did wilfully and feloniously seize in this harbour a steamer called the Arrow, belonging to Jacob Rossenbaum of Johore, and did detain and use the same with criminal intent. Are you guilty or not guilty?"

"Not guilty."

Mr. Rossenbaum having been called upon to give evidence, stated that, having contracted with Isaac Solomon of Singapore for the repair of his, witness's ship, the Arrow, the latter was sent round to Mr. Solomon's shipyard. Witness had every reason to believe that the repairs were carried out, for he received a wire from Mr. Solomon telling him to send a crew to take over the Arrow, which had then left the yard and was lying in Singapore harbour. He had duly despatched a crew, but, on the following morning, received another wire from Mr. Solomon asking him to come to Singapore at once. On arrival, he learnt that his vessel had been boarded and taken out of the harbour under her own steam by a person known as Captain Calamity.

The president then called upon Isaac Solomon. The latter, who had carefully abstained from looking at Calamity, took his stand as far from him as he possibly could.

"According to the statement previously laid before us," said the president, "you undertook to repair the steamer, Arrow, belonging to Mr. Rossenbaum. The repairs having been duly executed, the steamer was anchored in the harbour to await a crew which you had wired Mr. Rossenbaum to send?"

"That is so," answered the witness.

"But while the steamer was waiting for this crew, she disappeared mysteriously?"

"Yes."

"And you have reason to believe that the accused committed the offence?"

"I can prove it," said Mr. Solomon eagerly, but still carefully avoiding the Captain's eye.

"That will do," said the president, and Mr. Solomon, with a grin of triumph on his face, was about to retire, when the solicitor rose from his chair.

"With your permission, sir," he said, addressing the president, "I should like to ask this witness a question."

"Proceed then."

"Was there anything in the nature of a partnership existing between yourself and the accused?" asked the solicitor.

"Most emphatically not!" exclaimed the witness. "I have never had any dealings vith the man. He showed me a paper vich purported to be a privateer's licence, but in my opinion it vas a forgery."

"That was all I wanted to know," said Mr. Vayne, and sat down.

The next witness was Tilak Sumbowa, Solomon's water-clerk, who, in answer to the president, proceeded to give a long and detailed account of how, on the very day that the Arrow disappeared, his employer, Mr. Solomon, had instructed him to wire Mr. Rossenbaum that his steamer was awaiting a crew.

"That wire," said the witness impressively, "is in Mr. Rossenbaum's possession now. On returning to the office I found that Mr. Solomon had gone out and left a note saying that he had been called away on business, and would not be back till next morning. I still have that note. Then, having certain business to do myself, I went out of town and did not get back till the following day."

"Then neither you nor your employer were in Singapore on the night the Arrow disappeared?" suggested the president as the witness paused.

"No, sir."

Other witnesses were then called—all of them natives or half-castes—to show that Mr. Solomon was not in Singapore on the night of the Arrow's departure, and that he had never had any business dealings with Calamity.

"I will now call upon the accused to make his defence and examine any witnesses he thinks fit," said the president.

Mr. Vayne at once stood up, and, adjusting his pinc-nez, addressed the tribunal.

"I think it only right to inform the court that my client is not quite the nameless adventurer the prosecutor would have you believe," he said in a loud, sonorous voice. "It is true that he is known in these parts as Captain Calamity, and it is equally true that his name is John Brighouse. But he is also Viscount Redhurst of Redhurst—a fact which I mention, gentlemen, because I assume that, when we come to deal with conflicting statements, you will grant that the word of an English peer is at least equal to that of a semi-Asiatic ship-chandler."

Mr. Vayne paused for a moment or two after this dÉnouement, in order to let the full significance of his statement sink into the minds of his opponents. He had taken their measure pretty accurately, and calculated upon the effect which his words would produce.

"With the permission of the court," he went on, "I will recall the prosecutor and put a few questions to him."

At a gesture from the president, Mr. Solomon stepped forward. The air of conscious rectitude which had distinguished him when giving evidence against Calamity was not now so apparent.

"I understand," said the lawyer, focussing his pinc-nez upon the ship-chandler, "that it was you, and not Rossenbaum, who informed the authorities that my client had illegally appropriated the steamer, Arrow?"

"Yes," replied the witness.

"How soon, after you had discovered that the Arrow was missing, did you inform the authorities of the fact?"

"About three veeks," answered the witness reluctantly.

"You mean that three weeks elapsed before the authorities were made aware of what had taken place?"

"Yes."

"Then do you wish the court to believe that if a man stole your watch and chain, or broke into your office, you would wait three weeks before informing the police?"

"That vould be a different thing."

"I believe you. Now," added the lawyer with sudden vehemence, "I put it to you, sir, that your reason for waiting such a long time was that the accused might get safely away before the authorities had a chance to capture him."

"It vas not!" cried Mr. Solomon hotly. "Vy should I not wish him to be captured?"

The lawyer placed both hands on the back of his chair and leaned forward.

"Because," he said in a denunciatory tone, "you were the accused's partner; because, having partly financed his scheme, you wanted to reap all the profits by swindling your partner out of his share. I maintain," he went on, waving aside an interruption that Mr. Solomon was about to make, "that your object was to let my client capture what prizes he could, and then, by contriving his arrest, seize for yourself all the proceeds of the expedition, together with any money that might accrue from the Government."

"It is a lie, a vicked lie!" the witness almost shrieked.

"I will go even further," pursued the lawyer, ignoring Mr. Solomon's indignant protest. "I will assert that the whole thing was a plot, engineered by you as soon as my client had laid his plans before you. With or without the connivance of Mr. Rossenbaum, the Arrow was brought round to Singapore, coaled, provisioned, and armed by you, and, after you had caused the name Hawk to be substituted for Arrow, was handed over to my client with the understanding that it was your ship."

Mr. Solomon attempted to make a reply, but was so overcome with indignation, anger, and other emotions that he could only utter inarticulate sounds.

"I should like to recall the witness, Tilak Sumbowa," went on Mr. Vayne, and the ship-chandler sat down, biting his nails with rage.

The water-clerk came forward looking very nervous.

"I gathered from your evidence that neither you nor Mr. Solomon were in Singapore on the night the Arrow, or, as she was then called, the Hawk, left," said Mr. Vayne.

"No; Mr. Solomon left me a note at mid-day saying he was called away on business. I have it here," and the witness triumphantly produced an envelope from his pocket.

"Let me see it."

Sumbowa passed the note to the lawyer, who scrutinised the envelope critically.

"This envelope is addressed to Mr. Solomon," he said.

"Yes. The note was lying on his desk without an envelope, so I picked one out of the waste-paper basket and put the note in it."

"And this is the identical envelope which you picked up out of the waste-paper basket?"

"Yes."

"At the time you found the note?"

"Directly I had finished reading it."

"All of which circumstance took place a few hours before the Hawk left Singapore and during the time that Mr. Solomon was out of town?"

"Yes."

"Then," said the lawyer quietly, "how do you account for the fact that this envelope bears on it a postmark dated a week after the Arrow's departure?"

There was a dead silence. The witness looked from one to the other with an almost pitiful expression of bewilderment.

"Well," said the lawyer after a long pause, "what explanation have you to offer us? I presume you will not suggest that the postal authorities post-date letters?"

"I—I must have made a mistake," faltered the unhappy Sumbowa. "Now I come to think of it, I didn't put the note into the envelope till some days afterwards."

"Oh yes, you've made a mistake," commented the lawyer drily, "but not exactly in the way you would have us believe. However, we will let that pass for the moment. Were you in the office yourself on the night that the Arrow left?"

"No."

"What time did Mr. Solomon arrive at the office on the following morning?"

"I don't know."

"Don't you go to the office in the mornings, then?"

"Oh yes, I went to the office at eight o'clock as usual, but Mr. Solomon was not there. I waited about for a little while and then went away. When I came back at half-past ten he had returned."

"Was there anyone in the office at the time he arrived?"

"Oh no."

"How do you know?"

"It was locked up. That was why I went away."

A gleam came into the lawyer's eye as he realised, in a flash, what he had accidentally stumbled upon. Without looking, he knew that Solomon was making frantic but stealthy signs to Sumbowa, and by a kind of hypnotism he kept the little water-clerk's attention fixed upon himself. It would never do to let the half-caste guess what a mess he was getting his employer into. Mr. Vayne's next question, therefore, was purposely casual.

"You, yourself, had no key to the office then?"

"Oh no."

"Mr. Solomon had the only one?"

"Yes."

"Then do you suggest that he went away and left the office unlocked, because, if not, how did you get in and find the note? And if it was unlocked when you went in, how came it to be locked when you returned in the morning, you having no key and Mr. Solomon not having arrived?"

The witness looked bewildered for a moment and then, catching sight of Mr. Solomon's face, seemed to crumple up.

"Come, answer my question," rapped out the other.

"He—he must have come back to the office after I found the note," whimpered Sumbowa.

"You have simply been telling the court a tissue of lies from beginning to end," thundered the lawyer. "You have contradicted yourself so many times that you can't remember what you have said. Now let me tell you this, my man: unless you are prepared to confess the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, you will find yourself in the dock on a charge of perjury and with the moral certainty of being sentenced to a long term of imprisonment with hard labour. Now, answer me; did you receive that note before or after the departure of the Hawk?"

"Af-after," sobbed the witness.

"How long after?"

"About a fortnight."

"Do you know why Mr. Solomon gave you that note?"

"No."

"But he told you to swear that you found it in his office on the day in question?"

"Yes."

"You knew that it was he who provided the vessel with guns and ammunition, and also caused the name Hawk to be substituted for that of Arrow?"

Sumbowa hesitated for the fraction of a minute.

"Well?" rapped out the lawyer.

"Er—yes."

"Thank you; that will do."

The witness tottered back to his seat and almost collapsed in it. Never had he passed through such an ordeal before, and, for the time being, he was a nervous wreck.

Mr. Vayne turned to the tribunal.

"I shall not waste your time, gentlemen," he said, "by calling witnesses for the defence—as, for instance, my client's chief officer, who was with him when he visited the prosecutor on the night of sailing—or by arguing a matter which I regard as proven. All I shall do is to draw from the evidence conclusions which, beyond a doubt, prove my client's innocence of the charge brought against him. After having treated us to a series of palpable falsehoods at the instigation of his employer, the witness Sumbowa has admitted that Solomon did not give him the note saying that he would be out of town until a fortnight after the Arrow's departure and the inference is that Solomon did see my client on that particular night. Had he not done so, why should he have tried to establish an alibi; why should he have taken such pains to try and prove that he was not in Singapore that night?

"Further, I contend that these deductions are confirmed by the fact that Solomon, on his own admission, did not make known the alleged offence until three weeks after the steamer had left. I put it to you, gentlemen, as men of the world, that this was an extraordinary procedure, and can only be accounted for by the assumption that the prosecutor did not want his victim to be arrested before the latter had secured what, for want of a better term, I shall call a generous profit on the initial outlay.

"In short, I submit that Solomon entered into a conspiracy with divers persons to bring about the ruination of my client in order that he, the prosecutor, might reap the entire benefits of this privateering expedition.

"And now a word concerning the allegation that my client possessed forged Letters of Marque. I don't think it necessary to prove or disprove this charge, seeing that, under the circumstances, Letters of Marque were quite unnecessary. Any British ship, or any ship belonging to an allied Power, has the right to attack and destroy an enemy vessel, a statement which is borne out by the fact that the British Government offered rewards to any merchant captain who could prove that he had sunk, captured, or destroyed an enemy submarine. This, gentlemen, is all I have to say."

After a few minutes' whispered consultation with his colleagues, the president turned towards Calamity.

"We are unanimously of opinion that the charge brought against you is without the smallest foundation, and that you have been the victim of a malicious conspiracy," he said. "You are, therefore, acquitted. As to the prosecutor and his witnesses, they will be dealt with in due course upon charges arising out of this case."

As the president ceased speaking, Calamity rose and, drawing some papers from his pocket, handed them to him. They were the forged clearance papers and the secret instructions from a German source, addressed to Mr. Solomon, which he had taken from the Ann.

The president hastily glanced through them, asked Calamity a few questions in a low voice, and then touched a little bell at his side. A sergeant of marines entered in answer to the ring and stood at attention.

"Arrest that man and see that he is well guarded," said the president, indicating the ship-chandler.

With the sergeant's vice-like grip upon his arm, Mr. Isaac Solomon was dragged protesting from the room and so vanished for ever from the ken of friends and enemies alike.