would be if
this affair were known."

"Of course, it would be horrid, Frank, and perhaps you are right,
but it must be an awful trial."

"I have done all I could to set her mind at rest," Frank said. "I
wrote to her directly I arrived at Gibraltar, and again as soon as
I got the letter from Madeira saying that the brigantine had
touched there. I wrote from Madeira again with what news I could
pick up, and again from Porto Rico, from the Virgin Islands, and
from San Domingo. Of course, from there I was able to say that the
scent was getting hot, and that I had no doubt I should not be long
before I fell in with the brigantine. Then I sent another letter
from Jaquemel. That seems to me a long time ago, for we have done
so much since; but it is not more than ten days back. We will post
another letter the first time that we touch anywhere, on the off
chance of its going home by a mail steamer, and getting there
before us."

"It was wonderful your finding out that I had been carried off in
the Phantom. That was what troubled me most, except about mother. I
did not see how you could guess that the brigantine we had both
noticed the day before was the Phantom. I felt sure that you would
suspect who it was, but I could not see how you would connect the
two together."

"You see, I did not guess it at first," he replied. "I felt sure
that it was Carthew from the first minute when I found that you had
not landed, and it was just the luck of finding out that the
Phantom's crew had returned, and that they had been paid off at
Ostend, that put me on the track. Of course, directly I heard that
she had been altered and turned into a brigantine, I felt sure that
she was the craft that we had noticed; and as soon as I learned
through Lloyd's that she had sailed south from the Lizard, I felt
certain that she must have gone up the Mediterranean, or to the
West Indies. I felt sure it was the latter. However, it was a great
relief when I got a letter from Lloyd's agent at Madeira, telling
me that the brigantine had touched there, and I felt certain that I
should hear of you either here or at one of the South American
ports."

They kept on until they reached the hut at the point where the path
forked. It was found to be empty.

"Open the basket," Frank said. "We must have a meal before we go
further. We have come about half the distance.

"Now, Bertha, there is the bay, you see, and it is all downhill,
which is a comfort. Do you f