he yacht _Energon_ has arrived and gone to
anchor in the stream off Pier Seven."

What happened that night Walter Bassett has never divulged. But it is
known that he rode down in his auto to the water front, chartered one of
Crowley's launches, and was put aboard the strange yacht. It is further
known that when he returned to the shore, three hours later, he
immediately despatched a sheaf of telegrams to his nine fellow-captains
of industry who had received letters from Goliah. These telegrams were
similarly worded, and read: "The yacht _Energon_ has arrived. There is
something in this. I advise you to come."

Bassett was laughed at for his pains. It was a huge laugh that went up
(for his telegrams had been made public), and the popular song on Goliah
revived and became more popular than ever. Goliah and Bassett were
cartooned and lampooned unmercifully, the former, as the Old Man of the
Sea, riding on the latter's neck. The laugh tittered and rippled through
clubs and social circles, was restrainedly merry in the editorial
columns, and broke out in loud guffaws in the comic weeklies. There was
a serious side as well, and Bassett's sanity was gravely questioned by
many, and especially by his business associates.

Bassett had ever been a short-tempered man, and after he sent the second
sheaf of telegrams to his brother captains, and had been laughed at
again, he remained silent. In this second sheaf he had said: "Come, I
implore you. As you value your life, come." He arranged all his
business affairs for an absence, and on the night of March 2 went on
board the _Energon_. The latter, properly cleared, sailed next morning.
And next morning the newsboys in every city and town were crying "Extra."

In the slang of the day, Goliah had delivered the goods. The nine
captains of industry who had failed to accept his invitation were dead.
A sort of violent disintegration of the tissues was the report of the
various autopsies held on the bodies of the slain millionaires; yet the
surgeons and physicians (the most highly skilled in the land had
participated) would not venture the opinion that the men had been slain.
Much less would they venture the conclusion, "at the hands of parties
unknown." It was all too mysterious. They were stunned. Their
scientific credulity broke down. They had no warrant in the whole domain
of science for believing that an anonymous person on Palgrave Island had
murdered the poor gent