. He made his way carefully into the bow, and found
himself inside the basement of the house.

In the dimness of this interior he could just make out the outlines of
things around. The doorway was located at a corner of the inclosure. In
front lay a small open space of water. At one side a platform about two
feet above the surface formed the floor of the room. A tiny punt lay
moored to it. Farther back a small, steep flight of steps led up through a
rectangular opening to the building above.

Most of the light in this lower room came down through this opening; and
now, as Mercer stood quiet looking about him, he could hear plainly the
voices of men in the room above.

Anina was beside him.

"They're up there," he whispered, pointing. "Let's land and see if we can
get up those stairs a ways and hear what they're saying."

They stood a moment, undecided, and then from the silence and darkness
about them they distinctly heard a low muffled sound.

"What's that?" whispered Mercer, startled. "Didn't you hear that, Anina?
There's something over there by the bottom of the steps."

They listened, but only the murmur of the voices from above, and an
occasional footstep, broke the stillness.

"I tell you I heard something," Mercer persisted. "There's something over
there." He rattled a bit of rope incautiously, as if to startle a rat from
its hiding place. "Let's tie up, Anina."

They made the boat fast, but in such a way that they could cast it loose
quickly.

"We might want to get out of here in a hurry," Mercer whispered with a
grin. "You never can tell, Anina."

He stood stock still. The sound near at hand was repeated. It was
unmistakable this time--a low, stifled moan.

Mercer stepped lightly out of the boat onto the platform. A few boxes, a
coil of rope, and other odds and ends stood about. He felt his way forward
among them toward the bottom of the steps. He heard the moan again, and
now he saw the outlines of a human figure lying against the farther wall.

Anina was close behind him.

"There's somebody over there," he whispered. "Hurt or sick, maybe."

They crept forward.

It was a woman, bound hand and foot and gagged. Mercer bent over and tore
the cloth from her face. In another instant Anina was upon her knees,
sobbing softly, with her mother's head in her lap.

They loosed the cords that held her, and chaffed her stiffened limbs. She
soon recovered, for she was not injured. She told Anina her stor