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Then it can't have gained enough headway," insisted the captain, "to cause them

any such immediate terror as would be indicated by the haste with which the

whole ship's crew is tumbling into those boats; but as you say, sir, we'll have

their story out of them in a few minutes now, so it's idle speculating beforehand."

The officers and men of the Halfmoon, in so far as those on board the Lotus could

guess, had all entered the boats at last, and were pulling frantically away from

their own ship toward the rapidly nearing yacht; but what they did not guess and

could not know was that Mr. Divine paced nervously to and fro in his cabin, while

Second Officer Theriere tended the smoking rags that Ward and Blanco had

resigned to him that they might take their places in the boats.

Theriere had been greatly disgusted with the turn events had taken for he had

determined upon a line of action that he felt sure would prove highly

remunerative to himself. It had been nothing less than a bold resolve to call

Blanco, Byrne, "Bony," and "Red" to his side the moment Simms and Ward

revealed the true purpose of their ruse to those on board the Lotus, and with his

henchmen take sides with the men of the yacht against his former companions.

As he had explained it to Billy Byrne the idea was to permit Mr. Harding to

believe that Theriere and his companions had been duped by Skipper Simms--

that they had had no idea of the work that they were to be called upon to perform

until the last moment and that then they had done the only thing they could to

protect the passengers and crew of the Lotus.

"And then," Theriere had concluded, "when they think we are a band of heroes,

and the best friends they have on earth we'll just naturally be in a position to

grab the whole lot of them, and collect ransoms on ten or fifteen instead of just

one."

"Bully!" exclaimed the mucker. "You sure got some bean, mate."

As a matter of fact Theriere had had no intention of carrying the matter as far as

he had intimated to Billy except as a last resort. He had been mightily smitten by

the face and fortune of Barbara Harding and had seen in the trend of events a

possible opportunity of so deeply obligating her father and herself that when he

paid court to her she might fall a willing victim to his wiles. In this case he would

be obliged to risk nothing, and could make away with his accomplices by

explaining to Mr. Harding that he had been compelled to concoct this other

scheme to obtain their assistance against Simms and Ward; then they could

throw the three into irons and all would be lovely; but now that fool Ward had

upset the whole thing by hitting upon this asinine fire hoax as an excuse for

boarding the Lotus in force, and had further dampened Theriere's pet scheme by

The Mucker