[1] It is the seventh book in his series of novels featuring Inspector French of Scotland Yard, a prominent figure of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction known for his methodical technique.

On the way it is met by a launch, crewed only by an Irishman named Nolan who identifies the dead men and explains the background.

The following day this indeed happens, the company has over eight million pounds sterling in liabilities which come due, and it folds ruining thousands of people and threatening to trigger a wider international financial collapse reminiscent of the recent Wall Street crash.

French and his colleagues fail to find little initial evidence at the company's Threadneedle Street headquarters and he turns to examining the two vessels still lying in police custody at Newhaven.

After encountering multiple false leads, French eventually establishes a theory that after realising that the company was beyond saving, the men had been raising what capital they could, investing it in diamonds, and then planning to make off and start new lives in Argentina.