sink any moment.
So what can you expect of those excitable Chileans? Besides, the thing
was done so quickly that we were swept away by the tide before any one
fully understood what was happening. Anyhow, you had the best of it,
as events transpired. What are the discoveries you spoke of?"

"Well, some one placed dynamite among the coal."

"But who would do such a thing?"

"That is hard to say. The captain believes that the culprit will be
found out through the insurance policies. He and the others were
discussing the affair one day in the chart-house--soon after the
dynamite cartridges were discovered--and you cannot tell how surprised
I was to hear him mention Ventana's name in connection with it."

"Ventana's name!"

The blood ebbed away from Isobel's cheeks, leaving her pallid as a
statue. There was a gasp in her voice which startled her own ears.
Lest her agitation should be noted too keenly, she bent forward and
propped her face on her clenched hands, staring fixedly at the distant
cliffs in a supreme effort to appear apathetic. Elsie heard that dry
sob, but her friend's seeming indifference misled her.

"Yes," she said, wondering a little whether or not Christobal's veiled
hint regarding a by-gone tenderness between the two might account for
Isobel's hysterical outburst on the night of the ship's break-down.
Indeed, so warm-hearted was she that she hesitated a moment before
continuing; but she felt that it would be altogether better for Isobel
to be prepared for the revelations which the successful end of the
ship's voyage would assuredly bring forth. So, pondering unspoken
thoughts the while, she told the others exactly what Tollemache,
Christobal and Courtenay had said, and even revealed to them that which
Courtenay himself did not yet know.

"You remember the poor fellow who got into trouble soon after we sailed
from Valparaiso?" she said. "His name is Frascuelo. He was wounded
again in last night's fight, but not seriously, and he and I are quite
chums. He assures me that he was drugged by a man named Jose Anacleto,
who took his place among the coal-trimmers--"

"Oh, Miss Maxwell, come quick!" screamed Mrs. Somerville, for Isobel
had lurched sideways out of her chair in a fainting fit, and the
missionary's wife was barely able to save her head from striking the
ship's rails.

Joey was shot out of Elsie's lap with such surprising speed that he
trotted away without any exhibition of lamene