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Once aboard the Lotus the men were put to work with those already on the yacht.

The boat's rudder was unshipped and dropped into the ocean; her fires were put

out; her engines were attacked with sledges until they were little better than so

much junk, and to make the slender chances of pursuit that remained to her

entirely nil every ounce of coal upon her was shoveled into the Pacific. Her extra

masts and spare sails followed the way of the coal and the rudder, so that when

Skipper Simms and First Officer Ward left her with their own men that had been

aboard her she was little better than a drifting derelict.

From her cabin window Barbara Harding had witnessed the wanton wrecking of

her father's yacht, and when it was over and the crew of the brigantine had

returned to their own ship she presently felt the movement of the vessel as it got

under way, and soon the Lotus dropped to the stern and beyond the range of her

tiny port. With a moan of hopelessness and terror the girl sank prostrate across

the hard berth that spanned one end of her prison cell.

How long she lay there she did not know, but finally she was aroused by the

opening of her cabin door. As she sprang to her feet ready to defend herself

against what she felt might easily be some new form of danger her eyes went wide

in astonishment as they rested on the face of the man who stood framed in the

doorway of her cabin.

You?" she cried.

The Mucker