magnet--none of us could ever understand why. It looked
almost like a mystery! When there were no more Stanislaws on earth,
then, and not till then, Marcel considered himself free. He had the
world to choose from; and he chose to rest. He is now a gentleman of
leisure. Any one starting a hotel who could secure Marcel would be
made--made! But I should have said no hope, short of a Fifth Avenue
palace, if that. No more hope for us than of getting the Angel Gabriel
to stand blowing his trumpet in front of the door."

"There is no hope. I'd stake my life on that," said Caspian
emphatically. "When I came into my cousin's money, after the poor old
man's murder and all the other tragedies, I offered Marcel a salary of
fifteen thousand dollars a year to come to me. By Jove, I'd have built a
house to fit him. But he wouldn't listen. Tired of work was his only
excuse."

"Tired of making millionaires popular, perhaps," murmured Mr. Storm to a
picture of Cousin John Randolph Payton on the wall.

Caspian's heavenly blue eyes snapped with another kind of blue fire. "I
should say that no power except that of _blackmail_ could induce Marcel
Moncourt to take any interest, active or financial, in our scheme down
here. Perhaps that is your secret?"

If I hadn't seen the steerage passenger smile when Mrs. Shuster accused
him of being a gentleman and offered him cast-off clothes, I should have
expected violence. He smiled much in the same way now, to Pat's relief
and Larry's disappointment. "Perhaps it is," he said. "I've always
thought it must be exciting to be a blackmailer. Anyhow, it _is_ my
secret. If I can get--or, rather, if my friend can get--Marcel to put
money and gray matter into Kidd's Pines as a hotel, Mr. Moore--Miss
Moore, will you have him--and the Syndicate?"

"We would have him and the devil!" cried Larry.

Ed Caspian looked as if he suspected that having Marcel and Peter Storm
might turn out much the same thing. But he was the only "No," and the
"Ayes" had it.

Afterward Mrs. Shuster told me that Ed Caspian vowed to find out all
about our Ship's Mystery if it took his last penny. So we may "see some
fun," as Larry says.

But perhaps you've had enough of our scheme and schemers for the moment,
Mercedes mia!

Ever your loving MOLLY.

P. S. I suppose he _can't_ be a blackmailer? He might be _anything_!

IV

PATRICIA MOORE TO ADRIENNE DE MONCOURT, HER BEST FRIEND I