t the
help of strangers."

"I see," said Evan. "Are you one of Miss Playfair's 'brothers' too?"

"No; I'm an uncle," said Dordess with his bitter smile.

He walked away. There had been nothing in his words to which Evan
could take offence, nevertheless as plainly as one man could to another
he had conveyed the intimation that Evan was not wanted on board, and
that if he ventured on board again it would be at his peril.

"The brotherhood evidently fears that I'm going to break up the
organization," thought Evan.

As they approached the end of their journey Evan began to consider what
measures he should take upon landing. His part was a difficult one to
play with good humour; that is, to force himself on a young lady who
said she detested him, and who had half a dozen brothers and an uncle
to take her part.

"She'll do her best to give me the slip," he said to himself. "When we
tie up I'll stand by the gangway on the pretext of keeping the kids
from falling overboard. Some of them or all of them will take her
home, no doubt. I'll tag along, too. They can't very well openly
order me away, and I don't give a damn for their black looks and
meaning hints. The main thing is to find out where she lives. I can
choose my own time to call. Perhaps she won't open the door to me.
Well, my patience is good."

As they approached the pier Evan went down to the main deck. Corinna
was not visible at the moment. Only the forward gangway of the
_Ernestina_ was used. Her shape was so tubby that she couldn't bring
any two points alongside a straight pier simultaneously. While they
were making a landing all the children were kept roped off in the stern
and up in the saloon. The only persons in the bow space beside Evan
were Denton, Anway, Domville, Tenterden, two other "brothers" and two
deckhands to stand by the lines.

Up forward there was an additional stairway from the saloon. This was
enclosed and had a door at the bottom, locked at the moment to keep the
children out of the way. In the centre of the deck was a hatch for
freight, used presumably when the _Ernestina_ served as a carrier.

As the steamboat sidled up to her pier Evan heard Corinna's voice call
down the stairway: "Oh, Mr. Denton; will you come up here for a moment?"

Denton unlocked the door and disappeared upstairs. The door was locked
after him. At the same moment Domville and one of the unidentified
young men threw back the hatch cover. The