s corridor. It was opened by the Princess
eagerly.

"We are two more, Miss Morland," I said cheerfully, "and here is one of
them."

"But my brother!" she cried out.

"I've not discovered his whereabouts yet," I said evasively.

"Do you think that he's----" She did not finish.

"Not a bit of it," I said, as decidedly as I could, for, to tell the
truth, I had my grave doubts. "I have unearthed Mr. Lane and the
steward. Why shouldn't I unearth Mr. Morland, too?"

Yet, if the others were alive, why was the yacht so quiet?

She sighed, and then looked over at the couch on which Pye sat huddled.
"That man's no use," she said contemptuously. "He's been doing nothing
but drink brandy."

Lane crossed over to him. "The beggar's drunk," said he in disdain.

"Then you must hold one door and Miss Morland the other," said I.

"But you----" She paused.

"I am going on another expedition. You must let me out and in. Two
knocks will warn you."

So saying, I slipped the bolt and got out on deck. From the appearance
of the sky I judged that it was only half an hour since I had found
myself in the corridor. It was light enough to make out things fairly
well, and now I could discern on the bridge the portly form of Holgate
struck with this light. The figure of a man was visible a little in
front of me by the chart-house. I heard Holgate's voice raised wheezily
in orders, and the replies of the men came back to me inarticulately.
As I crouched under the shelter of the cabins on the lee side I became
aware of a faint but continuous line just over the bulwarks, and then
the explanation of the mysterious silence on the yacht dawned on me. It
was the coast line, from which we could not be more than a couple of
miles away, and in the confusion of the fight, no doubt, the _Sea
Queen_ had lost her course and been driven inshore. It had, therefore,
become imperative for Holgate to devote his attention and the
activities of his men to the danger that threatened, more particularly
as the heavy wind had threshed itself into a gale abeam.

Now at this juncture I must confess that I was entirely at a loss. I
could not move a foot across the deck without being discovered, since
it was merely the fact that I was in the lee of the cabins and in the
deeper shadows of the dawn that enabled me to skulk where I was. Yet I
was reluctant to go back without having carried the search a stage
further. It was obvious from the calm which reigned among