for the night. Lem, too astonished to do more than stutter,
pocketed the money without a word.

"One thing more," said the old man; "we shall need a small boat to tow
along."

"Oh, then yer goin' ter land some place?"

Lem, having recovered the use of his voice, had also regained his rural
curiosity.

The old man regarded him angrily, and then, in his peculiar, snarling
voice, he whipped out:

"What's that to you? We've paid you too much for your boat, and you know
it. Here's fifty dollars more. That's not to ask any questions and not
to answer any."

"Oh, I'll keep mum," Lem assured him, pocketing the extra money with
sparkling eyes. "When you're ready to go, I'll have a small boat ready
for you, never fear."

"Good. We'll be here at five o'clock sharp."

The old man and his companion sauntered off up the street. Lem watched
them till they entered the Bellport Hotel. Then, to himself, he
exclaimed in tones that fairly burst out of him:

"Wa'al, what d'ye know about that? Them chaps is either lunatics or
millionaires, or both. Wa'al, it's none of my affair, an' there might be
things I wouldn't do for fifty dollars, but keepin' my mouth shut for a
while ain't one of 'em. What a yarn I'll have ter tell when them two
chaps gets out of town! Kain't get over thet old feller, though. Fer all
his years, he's spry as a boy; suthin' mighty funny about both on 'em."

With this, Lem resumed his seat on the edge of the wharf and dismissed
the matter from his mind as far as was possibly consistent with the
knowledge of the--to him--gigantic sum reposing in his blue jeans.

Yet, had he known it, he was letting slip through his fingers the
possibility of earning a far larger sum. For the man with the queer eyes
was Ivan Karloff, a notorious anarchist, for whom a reward of five
thousand dollars was offered, following a bomb outrage in New York, and
his companion was Berghoff himself.

What were these two men doing in Bellport? Why did they want a fast boat
for a mysterious night trip?

The answers to these questions would have held a burning interest for
our friends on the submarine island. Like a vicious snake, Berghoff was
preparing to strike what he hoped would be a vital blow at the
_Peacemaker_ and her guardians. Crafty and unscrupulous, he had invested
in his services Ivan Karloff, whose price for dangerous undertakings
was high, but whose skill in his nefarious line of endeavor was supreme.

It was about midnig