ly, "you would
be glad to take refuge for a little while in preliminaries."

Hilda said nothing.

"It was midnight," said Gualtier, resuming his story once more, and
speaking with perceptible agitation in the tones of his voice--"it
was midnight, and intensely dark. The men were at the bow, waiting.
All was ready. In the cabin all had been still for some time. Her
lights had been put out an hour previously--"

"Well?" said Hilda, with feverish impatience, as he again hesitated.

"Well," said Gualtier, rousing himself with a start from a momentary
abstraction into which he had fallen--"the first thing I did was to
go down into the hold with some augers, and bore holes through the
vessel's bottom."

Another silence followed.

"_Some_ augers," said Hilda, after a time. "Did you need more than
one?"

"One might break."

"Did any one go with you?" she persisted.

"Yes--one of the men--the greatest ruffian of the lot. 'Black Bill,'
he was called. I've got something to tell you about him. I took him
down to help me, for I was afraid that I might not make a sure thing
of it. Between us we did the job. The water began to rush in through
half a dozen holes, which we succeeded in making, and we got out on
deck as the yacht was rapidly filling."

Again Gualtier paused for some time.

"Why do you hesitate so?" asked Hilda, quite calmly.

Gualtier looked at her for a moment, with something like surprise in
his face; but without making any reply, he went on:

"I hurried into the cabin and listened. There was no sound. I put my
ear close to the inner door. All was utterly and perfectly still. She
was evidently sleeping. I then hurried out and ordered the men into
the boat. Before embarking myself I went back to the hold, and
reached my hands down. I felt the water. It was within less than
three feet of the deck. It had filled very rapidly. I then went on
board the boat, unfastened the line, and we pulled away, steering
east, as nearly as possible toward Leghorn. We had rowed for about
half an hour, when I recollected that I ought to have locked the
cabin door. But it was too late to return. We could never have found
the schooner if we had tried. The night was intensely dark. Besides,
by that time the schooner--_was at the bottom of the sea_."

A long silence followed. Hilda looked steadily out on the water, and
Gualtier watched her with hungry eyes. At last, as though she felt
his eyes upon her, she turned and looked