low to the cabin.

The child was like so much sunshine flitting hither and thither upon
the steamer, and whose presence would be sorely missed when the hour
came for her to go. But Captain Strathmore was a disciplinarian, who
could never forget his duty, and he remained at his post until the
time came for him to go below to gain the few hours' sleep which
cannot be safely dispensed with by any one, no matter how rugged his
frame.

Tumbling into his berth, he stretched out with a sigh of comfort, and
went to sleep.

"Inez will be in here bright and early to wake me," was his
conclusion, as he closed his eyes in slumber.

But he was disappointed, for when he was called from his couch, it was
not by the little one whom he expected to see. At the breakfast-table
she did not appear, and then Captain Strathmore, fearing that she was
ill, made inquiries. He heard nothing, and filled with a growing
alarm, he instituted a thorough search of the vessel from stem to
stern and high and low. Not a spot or corner was omitted where a cat
could have been concealed, but she was not found.

And then the startling truth was established that little Inez
Hawthorne was not on board the steamer.

"Oh!" groaned poor Captain Strathmore, "she became my own child! Now I
have lost her a second time!"

CHAPTER V

THE NEW PASSENGER

Captain Strathmore rewarded Abe Storms liberally for the service he
had rendered them, and the mate and captain of the schooner, as we
have said, were rowed back to the boat by Hyde Brazzier.

Reaching the deck of the _Coral_, they watched the progress of the
great steamer until she vanished from sight in the moonlight, and then
the two friends went into the cabin to "study the chart," as they
expressed it.

It may be said that this had been the principal business of the two
since leaving the States, though the statement is not strictly
correct. The hum of conversation went on for hours; the night
gradually wore away, but still the two men sat talking in low tones,
and looking at the roll of paper spread out between them, and which
was covered with numerous curious drawings. The theme must have been
an absorbing one, since it banished all thought of the passage of time
from their minds.

"I tell you," said the captain, as he leaned back in his chair, "there
isn't the remotest doubt that a colossal fortune is awaiting us, and
unless some extraordinary accident intervenes, we shall gather it
up."