a pretty good one. Is there
anything wrong about the craft?"

"Not that I know of; but there was a good deal of curiosity about
her among the yachts, she being an out-of-the-way sort of craft;
and I fancy there were some bets about her. There was an idea that
she was seen going west two days later, and the governor asked me
to take the boat and find out whether she had been noticed here or
at Ryde. Thank you very much for your information. I have no doubt
that it will be sufficient to decide any bets there may be about
her."

So saying, he took his seat in the gig again, and rowed back to the
Osprey. The skipper returned in the evening.

"No such craft has gone into Southampton or Portsmouth," he said;
"so I have had my journey for nothing."

"No, I don't think you have," George replied. "It is something to
know that she is not in either of the ports now, and has been to
neither of them."

George returned in time to send off a full account of what he had
learned from the coast-guardsman by the mail that would be
delivered in London that night. On his return to town the next
morning, Frank found the letter awaiting him; and at ten o'clock,
after wiring to Hawkins and the steward to stock the yacht at once
with provisions of all kinds for a long voyage, he went into the
city and called upon the secretary at Lloyd's.

After giving his name, he told him that he believed that a young
lady had been carried off forcibly in the craft, which he minutely
described, and that he was desirous of having a telegram sent to
every signal station between Hull and the Land's End, asking if
such a craft had passed.

"Of course," he added, "I am ready to defray the expense of the
telegrams and replies. She left the Solent late on Wednesday
evening, and on Thursday would have been between Beachy Head and
Dover, if she had gone that way, and yesterday up the Thames or
somewhere between Harwich and Yarmouth."

"Well, Major Mallett, if you will sit down and write the telegram
with the description that you have given, I will send it off at
once. Then, if you will call again in an hour's time, I have no
doubt all the answers will have come in."

"Your craft has gone west," he said when Frank returned. "All the
answers the other way are negative. Saint Catherine says: 'Craft
answering description was seen well out at sea on Thursday
morning.' Portland noticed her in the afternoon, and she was off
the Start yesterday morning; the win