light and supreme happiness, he
could do nothing but cry, cry, cry, and murmur his gratitude and
thankfulness.

But, after a time, he did recover himself; and then he became aware
for the first time, as did the others, that a fourth party was
present. This was Mate Storms, who suspected the situation before he
was introduced to the happy captain of the _Polynesia_. Since they all
had such an extraordinary story to relate, the captain had an equally
remarkable one to tell them.

The persistent and never-ending investigation which he set on foot
concerning the lost Inez had resulted, not in finding her, but in
unearthing her entire history.

She was a native of the city of New York, and her father died there
before she was a year old. A former suitor of her mother, angered
because she would not become his wife, even after her husband was
deceased, resorted to the atrocious revenge of stealing Inez when she
was but an infant, and he hastened across the continent with her.

When he had kept her there a brief time, he sought to open negotiations
with the mother, with a view of delivering back her child on condition
that the parent should become his wife; but he was shocked to learn
that the poor, heartbroken mother had died from grief, and the child was
upon his hands.

This man finally married a woman in San Francisco, but neither of them
could ever feel any affection for the little girl (whom, however, they
treated quite fairly), and the wife insisted that she should be gotten
rid of in some way. Through some whim or other, the abductor had
always called her by her right name--Inez Hawthorne--and, seeing some
mention of it in the newspapers, he resorted to the means which we
described, at the opening of this story, for ridding himself forever
of her.

As soon as Inez was safely placed on the steamer, this wicked couple
disappeared, and no further trace of them could be found. Captain
Strathmore, who was anxious to punish them, believed they had left the
country. Inez, therefore, was an orphan, and while a gentle sadness
filled her affectionate heart--as she heard the particulars of her own
history for the first time, and reflected upon that poor, heartbroken
mother, who had gone to her rest long ago--she could not feel any
poignant grief, for her memory of the lost one was too shadowy and
faint. But she had found a home and friends for life.

Abram Storms explained that he had met three English gentlemen who
were