CHAPTER VIL. -
TWO DAYS AT SEA.

PERHAPS—if circumstances require it—I shall tell Count
d’Artigas that my name is Simon Hart. Of course, I
may not receive more attention than as Gaydon the
keeper. But this idea needs reflection. I am always
possessed by the thought that as the owner of the Zdda
has carried off the French inventor, it is with the object
of appropriating his discovery, of becoming the sole pos-
sessor of the Roch Fulgurator, for which neither the old
nor the new world would give the excessive, the ridiculous
price demanded. Well! if Thomas Roch should betray
himself, is it not better I should be with him, that I should
keep my post, and perform the duties necessitated by his
state? Yes, I must secure the possibility of seeing every-
thing, of hearing everything, and—who knows ?-—of learn-
ing what I failed to learn at Healthful House.

For the present, where is the £dda going? That is the
first question.

Who is Count d’Artigas? That is the second question.

The first will doubtless be answered in a few days,
considering the rapidity with which this mysterious yacht

I