CHAPTER IX.
MYSTERIES MULTIPLY Directing Kuroki to remove the ring and bring it along, Cleggett gave his arm to Lady Agatha and led the way back to the Jasper B.Neither said anything to the point until, seated in the cabin, with the twenty-dollar bill and the ring before them, Cleggett picked up the latter and remarked: "You are certain of the identity of this ring ?" "Certain," she said.

"I could not mistake it.

There is no other like it, anywhere." It was a very heavy gold band, set with a large piece of dark green jade which was deeply graven on its surface with the Claiborne crest.
"Was it," asked Cleggett, "in the possession of Reginald Maltravers ?" "It might have been, readily enough," she said, "although I had not known that it was.

Still, that does not explain...." She shrugged her shoulders.
"There are a number of things unexplained," answered Cleggett, "and the presence of this ring, and the manner in which it has come into our possession, are not the most mysterious of them.

The explosion itself appears to me, just now, at least, hard to account for." "The manner in which people get into and out of the hold of your vessel is also obscure," said Lady Agatha.
"Nor is the motive of their hostility clear," said Cleggett.
He picked up the piece of paper money.