ere is no sign of a storm brewing, and all we need do
now is hold on."

She was silent a moment, with head again bent forward.

"What do you suppose became of the men who deserted the yacht?" she
asked, her voice natural and quiet.

"Ashore, perhaps, by this time."

"Then we cannot be far away from land?"

"I have no means of knowing. Probably not, if they relied upon oars."

"Why should they? There was a mast and sails stowed in the boat; they
were always kept there for an emergency." She lifted her eyes, and stared
about into the gloom. "Do you suppose, Captain West, they could have
remained nearby to make sure the yacht sank?"

"No, I do not," he said firmly. "I thought of that once myself; but it is
not at all probable. They were too certain they had done a good job, and
too eager to get away safely. Hogan never deemed it possible for us to
get away alive. As it was, the escape was almost a miracle."

"A miracle!" softly. "Perhaps so, yet I know who accomplished it. I owe
my life to you, Captain West," she paused doubtfully, and then went on
impulsively. "Won't you explain to me now what it all means? How you came
to be here? and--and why those men sought in this way to kill me?"

"You do not know?"

"Only in the vaguest way; is it my fortune? I have been held prisoner;
lied to, and yet nothing has been made clear. This man who went down in
the cabin--you said he died trying to save me?"

"Yes; he endeavoured to release you from the stateroom, and was caught by
Hogan. In the struggle he received a death wound."

"I heard them fight. This Hogan then was the leader?"

"Of those on board--yes. But he is only the tool of others. This devilish
conspiracy has been plotted for a long while. There must be a dozen
involved in it, one way or another, but, as near as I can learn, the
chief devil, the brains of the gang, is the fellow named Hobart. Have you
known him--long?"

She hesitated, and West glanced aside wonderingly. Would she venture to
deny her knowledge of the man?

"No," she said at last doubtfully, "not unless his other name was Jim.
There was a fellow they called Jim. He was my jailer after that woman
locked me into a room."

"A woman? The same one who was with you on the yacht?"

"Yes."

"Where was this?"

"Why surely you must know. In that cottage where we stopped with Percival
Coolidge."

He drew a deep breath, more thoroughly puzzled than ever. What could be
her purpose to make so bo