eamer sent in pursuit of
the Caribbee had returned to Boston in the night. Of course she had not
seen or heard of the vessel, which had gone through Vineyard Sound,
while the steamer followed the track of ships bound round the Cape of
Good Hope.

"Has he been searched?" asked Mr. Gayles, when he had reported the
result of his mission to his employer.

"No; I proposed it to Mr. Cooke, but he declined to do it until a
warrant had been obtained," replied Mr. Watson.

"It should be done at once;" and Mr. Gayles hastened to attend to this
important duty.

Dock blustered, and attempted to resist the indignity, as he termed it;
but the constable was determined, and heeded not the prisoner's protest
or his struggles. On his person was found a variety of papers, and
among them the letter which Captain Gauley had written in the cabin of
the Caribbee. But this document had no signature, and was hardly more
satisfactory than the letter which Mr. Watson had received from Bessie;
at least it contained no accurate information. One sentence, however,
was sufficiently definite to make a beginning upon. "We are somewhere
inside of Sandy Hook, ready to go to sea at a moment's notice," Captain
Gauley wrote. "You know where to leave a letter in New York, when you
are ready to go on board; and one of us goes up to the city every day
now."

"It's no use," said Dock, maliciously. "You can't find the Caribbee.
Mr. Watson, I may rot in jail; but you will never see your daughter
again if you go on with this matter. If you want to get her back, pay
me the money I ask, let me go, and you shall have her in a week."

"I will not pay you a dollar," replied Mr. Watson, firmly.

"All right," added Dock, with a sneer. "You will wish you had in the
course of a year or two. I know what I'm about this time."

Mr. Watson, Mr. Gayles, and Levi went to another room to consider the
situation, leaving Constable Cooke in charge of the prisoner.

"Cooke, do you want to make a hundred dollars easy?" said Dock, in a
whisper.

"I don't know," replied the officer. "I can't compromise myself."

"You run no risk," added Dock, as he wrote with a pencil, on half a
sheet of note paper, the letter which Captain Gauley received just
before the Caribbee sailed. "Put this in an envelope, direct it to
Captain John Gauley, care of E. G. Baines & Co., No. ---- Maiden Lane,
New York, and put it into the post office. That's all; and here is a
hundred dollars."

Cons