“And you, Monsieur d’Andrézy, you are on intimate terms with the captain; surely you know something?” 

 I should have been delighted had I possessed any information that would interest Miss Nelly. She was one of those magnificent creatures who inevitably attract attention in every assembly. Wealth and beauty form an irresistible combination, and Nelly possessed both. 

 Educated in Paris under the care of a French mother, she was now going to visit her father, the millionaire Underdown of Chicago. She was accompanied by one of her friends, Lady Jerland. 

 At first, I had decided to open a flirtation with her; but, in the rapidly growing intimacy of the voyage, I was soon impressed by her charming manner and my feelings became too deep and reverential for a mere flirtation. Moreover, she accepted my attentions with a certain degree of favor. She condescended to laugh at my witticisms and display an interest in my stories. Yet I felt that I had a rival in the person of a young man with quiet and refined tastes; and it struck me, at times, that she preferred his taciturn humor to my Parisian frivolity. He formed one in the circle of admirers that surrounded Miss Nelly at the time she addressed to me the foregoing question. We were all comfortably seated in our deck-chairs. The storm of the preceding evening had cleared the sky. The weather was now delightful. 

 “I have no definite knowledge, mademoiselle,” I replied, “but can not we, ourselves, investigate the mystery quite as well as the detective Ganimard, the personal enemy of Arsène Lupin?” 

 “Oh! oh! you are progressing very fast, monsieur.” 

 “Not at all, mademoiselle. In the first place, let me ask, do you find the problem a complicated one?” 

 “Very complicated.” 

 “Have you forgotten the key we hold for the solution to the problem?” 

 “What key?” 

 “In the first place, Lupin calls himself Monsieur R———-.” 

 “Rather vague information,” she replied. 

 “Secondly, he is traveling alone.” 

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