134 FOR THE FLAG

have absorbed my mind ever since the £6da put out to sea
will be solved.”

Yet that the yacht’s port of discharge is really situated
in one of the Bermudas in the midst of an English archi-
pelago is improbable—unless the Count had carried off
Thomas Roch for the benefit of Great Britain—an almost
inadmissible theory.

One thing was certain; that eccentric individual was
watching me with a persistence which was, to say the
least, singular. Although he could not suspect that I am
Simon Hart, the engineer, he must wonder what I think of
this adventure. Gaydon the keeper may be an utterly
insignificant person, but he will be as anxious about his
fate as any gentleman—were he even the proprietor of
this fantastic pleasure yacht. Still I was a little surprised,
not to say disconcerted, by the persistence of that in-
quisitorial gaze.

If Count d’Artigas could have guessed the light which
had just burst upon my mind, I am not at all sure that he
would have hesitated to have had me thrown overboard.

Prudence required me to be more circumspect than
ever.

In fact, although I had not laid myself open to the least
suspicion—even in the mind of Serké, quick and cunning
as he is—a corner of the mysterious veil had been lifted.
The future was illumined by a faint glimmer.

As the 4a approached, the shape of this island, or
rather islet, was distinctly outlined against the clear
background of the sky. The sun, which had passed its