England,
France and Belgium. Sometimes they traveled for the purpose of disposing
of the jewels in various inland towns where the gems, having been recut,
were not recognized, while at other times, Chater and Archer, assisted
by Mackintosh, the captain, and Olinto Santini, the steward, sailed for
a port, landed, committed a robbery, and then sailed away again, quite
unsuspected, as rich Englishmen."

"And the crew?" I asked, after a pause.

"They were, of course, well paid, and were kept in ignorance of what
the supposed owner and his friends did ashore."

"But Oberg's connection with it?" I asked, surprised at those
revelations.

"Ah!" exclaimed Muriel. "The ingenuity of that crafty villain is
fiendish. Before he got into the Czar's favor he owed my father a large
sum, and then sought how to evade repayment. By means of his spies he
discovered the real purpose of the cruises of the _Iris_--for I was
often taken on board with a maid in order to allay any suspicion that
might arise if only men were cruising. Then he not only compelled my
father to cancel the debt, but he impressed the vessel and those who
owned and navigated it into the secret service of Russia. A dozen times
did we make attempts to obtain secret papers from Italian, French and
English dockyards, but only once in the case of Malta and once at Toulon
did we succeed. Ah! Mr. Gregg," she added, "you do not know all the
anxiety I suffered, how at every hour we were in danger of betrayal or
capture, and of the hundred narrow escapes we have had of Custom House
officers rummaging the yacht for contraband. You will no doubt recollect
the sensation caused by the theft of the jewels of the Princess
Wilhelmine of Schaumbourg-Lippe from the lady's-maid in the rapide
between Cannes and Les Arcs, the robbery from the Marseilles branch of
the Credit Lyonnais, and the great haul of plate from the chateau of
Bardon, the Paris millionaire, close to Arcachon."

"Yes," I said, for they were all robberies of which I had read in the
newspapers a couple of years before.

"Well," she said, "they were all committed by Archer or Woodroffe and
his gang--with accomplices ashore, of course--and never once did it seem
that any suspicion fell upon us. While the police were frantically
searching hither and thither, we used to weigh anchor and calmly steam
away with our booty on board. We had with us an old Dutch lapidary, and
one of the cabins was fitted as a workshop, where he