om at the
agency. He had performed the duties entrusted to him by the detective
and was now wild with impatience for further action. His first glance
into Van Dusen's face stirred him to new excitement.

"Oh, Arthur!" he exclaimed, "I can see by your expression that you have
obtained important information. Tell me!" he insisted. "Tell me! I must
know--even if it's the worst. In these hours of suspense and despair,
I've braced myself to stand any shock. Tell me!"

Van Dusen answered soothingly.

"Roy, old man, the mystery will be solved, I think, and that before
long. That is to say, it will be cleared up unless _The Isabel_ founders
at sea before we can reach it. I have discovered that in all human
probability Miss Marion has been carried away in the yacht by Doctor
Garnet."

"Are you positive about that?" Roy demanded fiercely.

"I am positive this far," came the quiet reply. "Doctor Garnet has not
returned to his office since the time when he answered the call to
attend Miss Marion on the yacht. It is fairly to be deduced from her
message to you that he appeared on board in answer to her summons. I am
of the opinion that Doctor Garnet is the one responsible for this
outrage. He is either the victim of a sudden fit of insanity, or he has
become a man-beast, sacrificing position and honor and every decent
instinct in order to gratify a heretofore smoldering lust, which has
suddenly flamed forth and got beyond his control."

"Your deductings are doubtless right--at least in part," Roy admitted,
though with obvious reluctance in his tone. "But I find it hard to
believe the possibility of Doctor Garnet's being the brute you suggest.
He is universally esteemed not only for his ability, but also for his
manliness and his many deeds of kindness and charity. If he has done
this thing it must have been as you also suggest because he has gone
crazy."

Roy mused for a moment, and then spoke with a new note of excitement in
his voice.

"How do we know that the Doctor was not murdered while on board the
yacht, and that the murderer or murderers then made off with the vessel
and Marion? Or, perhaps, the tender was capsized and he was drowned
along with the caretaker. Afterward the kidnapping may have been done by
others who knew nothing whatever of Doctor Garnet." Roy shook his head
with decision. "Anyhow," he added, "I cannot believe that Doctor Garnet,
in his right mind, could ever have been guilty of such a foul crime."