180 FOR THE FLAG

long-continued robberies to constitute a treasure of enor-
mous value, which Ker Karraje and his followers were
doubtless now enjoying, after having placed it in safety in
Some retreat known only to themselves.

" Where had the band taken refuge after their disappear-
ance? All search was fruitless. Alarm having ceased
with danger, those horrors of which the Western Pacific
had been the scene were in a short time forgotten. All
this was common knowledge.

Now for that which will never be known if I do not
succeed in escaping from Backcup.

Yes, these evildoers were indeed the possessors of con-
siderable wealth at the time when they abandoned the
waters of the West Pacific. After having destroyed their
ship they dispersed in different directions, having arranged
to meet on the American Continent.

At that time Serk6 the engineer, deeply learned in his
-profession, a skilful mechanician, who had made a special -
study of submarine boats, proposed to Ker Karraje to
build one of these destroyers in ordér to begin their preda-
tory life again under more secret and more terrible condi-
tions.

Ker Karraje instantly saw the value of the idea of his
‘accomplice, and-as there’was no lack of money he had only
to set to work.

While the self-styled Count d’Artigas was ordering the
schooner dda at the Gottenburg dockyards in Sweden,
‘Serko gave the plans for a submarine boat to the
Cramps shipyards in Philadelphia, and its construction