aw two men follow the limp bundle over the gunwale; and finally saw
the boat herself drawn up and placed in her davits. Hambleton's mind
at last slid to its conclusion, like a bolt into its socket.

"They're kidnapping her, without a doubt," he said slowly. For a
moment he was like one struck stupid. Slowly he turned to the dock,
looking up and down its orderly but unprepossessing clutter. Dim
lights shone here and there, and a few hands were at work at the
farther end. The dull silence, the unresponsive preoccupation of
whatever life was in sight, made it all seem as remote from him and
from this tragedy as from the stars.

In fact, it was impersonal and remote to such a degree that Hambleton's
practical mind, halted yet an instant, in doubt whether there were not
some plausible explanation. The thought came back to him suddenly that
the motor-car must be somewhere in the neighborhood if his conclusion
were correct.

On the instant his brain became active again. It did not take long, as
a matter of fact, to find the car; though when he stumbled on it,
turned about and neatly stowed away close beside the partitioning wall,
he gave a start. It was such a tangible evidence of what had
threatened to grow vague and unreal on his hands. He squeezed himself
into the narrow space between it and the wall, finally thrusting his
head under the curtains of the tonneau.

It was high and dry, empty as last year's cockleshell. Not a sign of
life, not a loose object of any kind except a filmy thing which
Hambleton found himself observing thoughtfully. At last he picked it
up--a long, mist-like veil. He spread it out, held it gingerly between
a thumb and finger of each hand, and continued to look at it
abstractedly. Part of it was clean and whole, dainty as only a bit of
woman's finery can be; but one end of it was torn and twisted and
stretched out of all semblance to itself. Moreover, it was dirty, as
if it had been ground under a muddy heel. It was, in its way, a
shrieking evidence of violence, of unrighteous struggle. Hambleton
folded the scarf carefully, with its edges together, and put it in his
pocket. Jimmy's actions from this time on had an incentive and a
spirit that had before been lacking. He noted again the number of the
car, and returned to the edge of the dock to observe the yacht. She
had steamed up river a little way for some reason known only to
herself, and was now turning very slowly. She was