ing this information.

"But the plan to get the diamonds from the cellar failed, and they had
to do something else. That old woman and her fisherman husband were
delegated to capture one or more of you girls, and force you either to
tell where the diamonds were, or else they were going to hold you as a
ransom for them."

"How terrible!" cried Grace.

"But it's all over now," her brother said. "Now we have the diamonds, we
have the poor dupes of tools the smugglers bribed--the fisherman and the
men of the schooner--and it only remains to get the criminals
themselves. We'll do it, too."

"Did they treat you badly?" asked Grace of Betty and Amy.

"Badly enough," the Little Captain replied. "They would not tell us why
we were made prisoners. But after they had taken the gags from our
mouths, they put them on again, just before you came."

"That was because they saw the motor boat after them and knew they
couldn't get away because of no wind," suggested Will.

"We thought perhaps there was a pursuit," Amy said. "And then Betty grew
desperate and managed to attack the old woman."

"But you helped," said Betty.

"Oh, don't let's talk about it," exclaimed Grace. "All's well that ends
well."

"But it isn't all ended yet," Will remarked, significantly.

Working on the fears of their prisoners the government men learned where
the real smugglers were hiding, waiting for the success of their plot,
and they were arrested. In due time they were tried, found guilty and
sentenced to pay heavy fines on the charge of trying to defraud Uncle
Sam. On the charge of kidnapping the two girls the heavier punishment of
imprisonment was meted out to those involved.

It developed that the smugglers, however, had protected themselves from
the graver charge. They had instructed the fishermen to get information
from the girls about the diamonds, in any way the ignorant men thought
best, and the kidnapping scheme was the product of the brains of the old
woman and her husband. They laid the plot to capture the girls, and
secured the help of several friends, hiring the schooner for their
purpose. When the schooner sailed away with Betty and Amy the old woman
and her husband expected to pick up the smugglers and let them force the
truth from the girls. But their plan was spoiled.

The diamonds, of course, became the property of the government, and were
sold at auction, and on such favorable terms that each of the girls was
able to obtain