I0O FOR THE FLAG

There above the uprights of the windlass hung a bell.
On the bronze of that bell, perhaps, the name might be
engraved.

_ There was no name!
_I went back to the stern, and addressing the man at the
wheel, I renewed my question.

He gave me a surly look, shrugged his shoulders,
and, without a word, steadied himself to bring up the
schooner, which had been thrown to larboard by a
heavy sea.

I thought of Thomas Roch. I looked for him. He
was not to be seen. Was he not on the ship? That
would be incomprehensible. Why should they only carry
off Gaydon the keeper from Healthful House? No one
could have suspected that I was Simon Hart, the engineer,
and even if the fact were known, whose interest could it
be to carry me off, and what was to be expected of me?
So then, seeing that the inventor is not on the deck, J fall
to thinking that he must be shut up in one of the cabins,
and perhaps receiving more-attention than his ex-keeper !

Let me observe the trim of the schooner.

Why did it not strike me at first that the sails are furled,
not an inch of canvas is spread, the wind has fallen, the
occasional puffs that come from the east are contrary, as
her head was pointing in that direction. Yet, nevertheless,
the schooner is skimming rapidly, her bows cutting the
water while her stem ploughs the sea, and the foam
rushes along the sides.

Is this vessel a steam yacht? No! No funnel rises