ack to go several miles
for her luncheon, she got it and returned mighty quick."

"Probably used a woman's privilege, and changed her mind about driving
to that other hotel," suggested Mr. Farnum.

For some minutes more the party waited, then went down into the road,
but there was no sign of Jack coming along.

"Mighty strange!" muttered Hal, uneasily. "Well, we've got to aboard,
now," announced Jacob Farnum, after glancing at his watch. "Sorry
we can't very well invite you to go with us, Mr. Hennessy."

"I shall see you, if you come ashore in the evening," replied the
reporter. "In the meantime I shall be about the hotel. If I see
Benson, I'll tell him where you all are."

Being well provided with cigars, Reporter Hennessy did not quit the
veranda after he had once taken his seat there. So it happened that
he noted the arrival of M. Lemaire, alone in a runabout, just about an
hour after the time when Mlle. Nadiboff had returned.

Jack Benson, however, did not put in an appearance.

The submarine torpedo boat, with its naval party aboard, sailed out of
the harbor, returning just before dark.

Then, as soon as could be, Messrs. Farnum and Pollard and Hal and Eph
came ashore, heading straight for the hotel.

"Your young captain hasn't succeeded in walking the two miles' distance
to this hotel," announced Mr. Hennessy, who was waiting for them.

"Confound it, I don't like the looks of this," muttered Farnum, uneasily.
"It looks as though something had been done to Benson."

"Will you notify the police?" questioned the reporter.

"I don't believe that would be wise. At any rate, not quite yet,"
interposed Hal.

"Then what would you do?" demanded Mr. Farnum, turning upon the young
engineer.

"If Jack has come to any misadventure through that pair of spies,"
uttered Hal, anxiously, "it seems to me it will be a heap more promising
if we keep a sharp, unseen watch over every move made by M. Lemaire
and Mlle. Nadiboff."

"Right-o, every time!" clicked Eph. "If anything has happened to good
old Jack through that pair, then they're the only ones to be watched!"

Dinner, that evening, wasn't as confident a meal for the submarine
party as luncheon had been. Both Mlle. Nadiboff and the Frenchman
were in the dining room, though they did not sit together.

Later, the young Russian woman appeared in the ballroom. She was as
eagerly sought as a partner as she had been the night before.

Farnum and his frien