The rest of the night seemed to drag by as though time were slowing itself out of spite for our eager anticipation of the morning. I felt as though I could not sleep a wink, but when I went up to my room to try, I surprised myself by falling into a deep sleep almost immediately. I was however, up and dressed well before dawn to join Sherlock Holmes and Mrs Kendrick waiting in eager anticipation of our visitor's arrival. I, however, was not quite so convinced as Holmes as to the friendly nature of our expected visitor and had slipped my revolver into my pocket as a guard. It never hurt to err toward the cautious.

We had drawn back the curtains from the bow window so as to have a clear view down to the street so we could observe the approach of our anticipated visitor. I feel safe in stating that between the three of us, we kept a constant watch on the street outside, although each of us sat with an open book, pretending to read.

The sun was barely up when we saw someone approaching down the empty street toward our door. As he drew closer we could see that he was dressed as we had expected, in the fashion of a sailor, with dark pants and a heavy pea coat buttoned close about him. He was carrying a walking stick and he made use of it occasionally, although not with every step. He appeared to be carrying it as much from habit as from true need.

Sherlock Holmes dashed down the stairs to greet the man and show him in, his desire being that we not rouse Mrs Hudson by te ringing of the bell. He left the two of us waiting upstairs, Mrs Kendrick nervously fiddling with her hair and I reaching down to finger the revolver in my pocket.

Holmes's footsteps were soon on the stairs heading back up toward us and behind his familiar tread came the uneven footfalls of our visitor. Both Mrs Kendrick and I were on our feet to greet our visitor when he entered the sitting room, hard on the heels of Holmes.

"Marian," the man breathed as saw her, his dark features immediately lightening.

"William," she answered, crossing to take his hand. "You have changed so much since…"

"Since Arthur introduced us," the man finished somewhat sadly. "So very much has changed since we met." Mrs Kendrick nodded her agreement.

"Mr Holmes, Doctor Watson," said she turning toward us, "I should like to introduce you to William Thomason, a very dear friend of my late brother."

Holmes nodded curtly to the man and withdrew his pistol from his pocket, placing it upon his desk. "The pleasure is mine," replied Holmes, "and I apologize for the necessary precautions." I took the opportunity to divest myself of my own weapon, placing it beside Holmes's.

"I should have been a good deal more concerned had you not," Thomason admitted, grasping each of our hands in turn as we offered them to him. His grip was firm and his hands rough, but his manner of speaking rather more refined than I should have expected from one who had spent much of their life in the service of the Navy. "I am much relieved to know that Marian has been in such capable care as yours."

"And yet," said Holmes taking a seat, "you have not ceased your watch over her."

"Aye," Thomason told him, revealing himself, "that is the truth as well. Although once she came under your care I was able to go about the dog watch in somewhat a different manner."

"Tell us what you know of this matter," urged Holmes as the rest of us followed his lead and sat, "for our time runs short."

"It runs shorter than you may suspect, Mr Holmes," said Thomason.

"I am aware that all rests with our mutual charge," answered Holmes.

"Aye, that it does." And with that small segue Thomason launched his tale. "As Marian has no doubt told you, her brother Arthur and I were shipmates, neither one of us cut out to be sailors, but both having joined for reasons other than the sea. We trained together along with another man who came to be a close friend, George Trumper. We three spent our time aboard ship together and came to know each other as well as men can expect to know one another.

"Arthur and I were closer with one another than we were with George, and George felt slighted by it. He never mentioned it outright, but he would comment offhandedly to others various things that we had revealed to one another in confidence, thinking our secrets safe among friends. It was perhaps this that drew us two together closer, to the exclusion of George. But still, aboard ship, even in home waters, it is impossible to avoid another man, especially one you call friend.

"We all three knew each other's histories. We knew that George came from a rough life in Liverpool, having been orphaned at a young age and left to the care of two matron aunts. We knew that Arthur was a half-orphan who had been adopted by a Naval lieutenant who had died not long after making him legal heir. And we knew that I would have rather been studying literature at one of the universities, but had not had sufficient funds for it. There were points in all of our stories where we had commonalities and while that should have drawn us together, in the end it only pushed us further apart.

"Arthur had worked in a telegraph office for some years before he had joined and he taught us three the alphabet to pass the time aboard ship when we had no better ways to occupy ourselves. Neither George nor I had anyone to write to us, and Arthur enlisted Marian to take us in as brothers as well. She wrote us as faithfully as she did Arthur," related Thomason, reaching across to pat Mrs Kendrick's hand. "And it was about that time that we began to devise the cipher with which you have recently been introduced. We used it as a way to while away the time.

"Arthur and I had begun to talk of leaving the Navy when our service was ended and striking out on some venture together. George had always planned to stay with the Navy until his retirement and had assumed that we two had the same plan. It cut him to the quick to learn that we had not that intention and from that time, he slowly began to draw even further away from us.

"But he had not space to draw away aboard ship and was brought into constant contact with us. And he had not time to do it either, for we were on our return from our Indian post. It was a poor time for the voyage for we encountered heavy seas, strong winds, and vicious squalls that near tore the mast from our ship. We put into port to wait out the worst of the storms and after two days of clear weather, we all thought it had passed. We resumed sail around the Cape only to encounter the worst storm of them all. We were run aground on some rocks and the ship began to flounder. We attempted to save the ship, but were forced to abandon ship.

"The small boats were ground into the rocks by the pounding of the surf and we were left with only pieces of wreckage to cling to as we attempted to gain the shore. The majority of the ship's company were lost, with only a few of us washed up on the beach by the water. George and I were among the few survivors. Arthur was lost forever beneath the angry sea.

"Somehow George had emerged from the wreckage and the seas unscathed, while I was not nearly so lucky. My hands had been cut severely by lines as we attempted to prevent the ship from capsizing completely and my leg had been badly broken when I was run up against the rocks. My wounds became infected and for some days I hovered on the verge of death, but slowly I began to recover.

"Hardly an hour after my fever had broken, George was at my bedside asking after Arthur. In my exhaustion, I answered his questions with information that I realized only later that Arthur had never shared with our friend. Now I only wish that I had never recovered to give George that information," Thomason declared with fervour, "for then he should never had cause to come after you, my dear Marian."

"What reason would Trumper have to come after Mrs Kendrick?" Holmes inquired sharply. Based on the information he had shared with me the previous day, while we made our inquiries, I knew that he was well aware of the reasons, and I knew that he suspected that Mrs Kendrick had no idea of the true motivation behind the actions of George Trumper and his accomplice Hancock.

"I don't know if you were ever told this, Marian," said Thomason, taking up her hand, "but your father and uncle would never had need worked more than a year in their lives had they not wished it. Your brother also had never needed turn his hand to anything after his first year in the Navy, for there exists some small fortune in their names."

"Surely you jest," Mrs Kendrick exclaimed in surprise.

"I have at times wished that the fortune never existed," Thomason told her, "but it is truth."

"I can assure you that he speaks the truth," spoke Holmes, withdrawing some pages from the book he had been reading earlier. He had secreted them there so that he might have them at hand, knowing well that they would be needed. "It is rare for a family that has been seafaring for generations not to contain at least one who has turned at some point to piracy. Your family is no exception," he continued, passing across the pages to her. "Your ancestor James Corlett was a pirate in the Indian Ocean for some years before returning to his home and family on the Isle of Man with a fortune in gold and precious jewels."

"This ancestor of yours," Thomason resumed, "had grown up the poor son of a fisherman and had gone to seek his fortune on the high seas. He married and had children by a local woman, but was a-sea for much of their childhoods; he returned to find them grown to adulthood. James Corlett's own son was of the type that he abhorred above all; anxious for the fortune and with no appreciation of what James Corlett held dear, the sea. Not being an uneducated man, he took his problem to one of the Isle's judges and the judge came up with a solution. Legal documents were drawn up stating that only those heirs who spent at least a year in the sea's service could draw upon the fortune, and only then as much as they needed to live on, until such time as the blood-line was cut. Then the last heir should receive the entire remaining sum to give to whom he would."

"I have no shortage of cousins upon the island," Mrs Kendrick said in shock, "surely…"

"Aye," said Thomason, "but none of their families has stayed with the sea. Yours is the only branch to have sustained the sea service up until this time."

"The documents are quite legal," Holmes said, passing across several pages for her to read. "And your uncle currently is the only family member drawing upon the fortune. Your brother would have been eligible for the entire sum upon your uncle's death, for when your father died leaving only daughters, the blood-line was cut, as none of you could pursue sea service. But your father had made him heir, legally leaving the fortune to him unless your uncle offered up objection, which he has never done."

Mrs Kendrick took the documents but did not read them. She glanced at them briefly and then looked up, her gaze wandering between the three of us. "Arthur, though," Thomason went on gruffly, "never wanted it all. He considered himself as blood to you and your family and had planned to draw only what he needed to sustain himself, leaving the rest as it was for future generations to draw upon in the same manner."

"Why had I not heard before this that my uncle was ill?" Mrs Kendrick asked in concern. It was a logical conclusion on her part.

"He's not ill," Holmes assured her, "merely growing quite old and infirm. This Trumper and his accomplice Hancock knew, however, that they should have to make their move before the old man died, for after your brother's death, he made his intentions to leave the fortune to be distributed among various charities well known."

"They've been planning for some time," said Thomason, "and it is only lately that they have begun to set events in motion. George Trumper was to act as Arthur, the task being simplified by the physical resemblance that they bore to one another and the intimacy with which we knew one another those years ago."

"Who then is this Hancock? Aside from being the husband of my landlady's sister," Mrs Kendrick inquired.

"He is an infamous barrister residing in Portsmouth," Holmes informed her. "Trumper was forced to involve him to resolve the legal issues surrounding claiming the fortune in exchange for a portion of it. Unfortunately for Trumper, Hancock is not a slipshod in his work, crooked though he is. What Hancock pointed out, much to Trumper's displeasure, is that you have, in fact, fulfilled the necessary sea-service and the blood-line has not been cut."

"In fact," said I, unable to suppress the comment or the accompanying grin, "it is still flourishing."