104 FOR THE FLAG

So, it is this rich foreigner who has kidnapped
Thomas Roch, and I am on board his yacht, the £da, so
well known in the East American latitudes. Be it so!
The man before me shall tell me all I have the right to
know. I remember that he and the Count spoke English.
He will understand me, and he cannot refuse to answer my
questions.

I conclude that the man is the captain of the Edda,
and address him thus,—

“Captain, it was you I saw at Healthful House in the
French inventor’s pavilion. Do you recognize me?”

He merely stares at me, but makes no answer.

“T am Gaydon, the keeper,” I continued, “the atten-
dant of M. Roch, and I wish to know why you have
carried me off and put me on board this schooner ?”

The Captain interrupts me by a sign ; and the sign was
not even addressed to me, but to some sailors posted near
the forecastle,

They came up, took me by the arm, and without
troubling themselves about the anger which I could not dis-
guise, they forced me to go down the ladder which was
composed of perpendicular iron bars. On the passage on
each side a door opened.

Were they going to plunge me once more into the black
hole which I had already occupied, at the bottom of the
hold?

I turn to the left, and the men push me into a cabin
lighted by one of the small port-holes in the side hull,
which is open. The furniture consists of a bunk with its