spirit. "We
must not make differences. But there must be discipline," he added.

There was, therefore, a certain _camaraderie_ reigning which had been
foreign to the yacht before, and Lane gave way to his native garrulity,
enlivening the table by some anecdotes, at which even Barraclough
condescended to smile.

"My hat!" cried the purser suddenly, slapping his flank. "They've not
got what they fought for, and we've none of us thought of it."

There was a pause. It was true, none of us had thought of it; we had
been too busy thinking of other things.

"Are you sure?" said I.

Lane rose. "Let's go and see," said he. "But I've all the keys, and
I'll swear no one came down in the neighbourhood of the strong-room
while I was there."

We trooped down, Prince and all, and it was as the purser had said. The
safes were untouched. Barraclough elevated his eyebrows.

"The fools!" he commented.

"Well, it doesn't seem to me quite that," said I slowly. "It only looks
as if Holgate was certain."

"What do you mean?" he asked, and they all looked at me.

"Why, if he did not take the trouble to touch this, he cannot be in a
hurry. I never came upon a man with a cooler head. He's not in a hurry,
that's a fact. It's been deliberate all through, from the very moment
we left the Thames."

We looked at each other now. "Jerusalem!" said Lane. "What a savage!
He's made sure of us, then."

"He can wait his time," I said. "He has waited, and can wait longer.
The ship's in his hands."

"You take a gloomy view, sir," observed the Prince with a frown.

"Well, Mr. Morland," I replied drily. "I don't think we're here to
glaze matters over. We've got to face things, and one of these things
is that Holgate hasn't worried us since he got possession. How are you
going to account for that, save on my hypothesis?"

"They shall be hanged--every one," he exclaimed angrily, the German
accent emerging roughly now.

"Well, we'll do our best, sir," I replied lightly.

I shut the strong-room door, and Lane locked it; and, as I turned, I
saw the white face of Pye in the background. He had been missing from
breakfast, and he looked very sickly, very pale, and very much abashed.
The Prince noticed him, too, and addressed him sharply.

"Why are you here, sir? What do you mean by leaving your quarters? I
will have discipline kept on this ship."

"I have no quarters," pleaded Pye humbly. "I was feeling sick, and lay
down in my bunk."

"You s