As he was waiting for his train, his attention was attracted by a bill posted up on the walls, containing the following notice:
On the 4th of December, the engineer, James Starr, of Edinburgh, embarked from Granton Pier, on board the Prince of Wales. He disembarked the same day at Stirling. From that time nothing further has been heard of him.
Any information concerning him is requested to be sent to the President of the Royal Institution, Edinburgh.
Jack Ryan, stopping before one of these advertisements, read it twice over, with extreme surprise.
“Mr. Starr!” he exclaimed. “Why, on the 4th of December I met him with Harry on the ladder of the Dochart pit! That was ten days ago! And he has not been seen from that time! That explains why my chum didn’t come to Irvine.”
And without taki
