"About where on his carcass is the hair short?" asked Louis, amused in spite of himself at the manner of the pilot. "About the neck, I should say," answered Scott. "You speak in enigmas. Will you explain yourself?" "With the greatest pleasure. I believe you have never been in South America, Captain Belgrave?" "I have never been there," replied Louis; and from Scott's half-suppressed laugh, and his manner, he concluded that there must be a humorous element in the plan he had suggested. "But of course you have heard of such an operation as lassoing horses and other animals. Certainly you know all about it. Well, Captain Belgrave, I propose to lasso Mr. Gray, just as you would lasso a wild bull if you were a ranchman in South America or Mexico." "Lasso him!" exclaimed Louis; and his companions repeated the words. "That will be a dangerous operation." "It will--for Mr. Gray." "And for us!" "Not a bit of it! It will be as safe as falling on a haystack," argued the pilot with no little enthusiasm. "Give the order to carry out my plan, and I will proceed to business at once." "Go ahead then, as you seem to have an idea," added Louis. "I have a big idea. Now, Morris, you are the smallest fellow of the party, and I am going to put you through one of the windows, and drop you down on the deck," continued Scott in the briskest of tones. "I can get out of the window without any help," replied Morris, who was glad to have a part in the proceedings. "Any way you like, little fellow. I think the heave-line the Scotchman used to throw into the smugglers' boat is somewhere about the standing-room. I want that rope; and if you can't find that one, look up another, and pass it in through the window. Do you understand me?" "Of course I do; you don't talk Spanish or Chinese," Morris responded as he leaped on the divan. "Hold on a minute! Go around to this door in the standing-room, and if you find the key there, unlock it. I'll wager a rusty nail against a cold potato that Gray left the key in the door so that we could not pick the lock." Morris sprang lightly into the open window, which was large enough to admit the passage of his body without any pinching. He looked forward, as the pilot warned him to do, and then lowered himself to the deck. The heave-line was lying on the planks beside the bulwark, and he passed the end of it to Scott, who was at the window watching his movements. It was immediately hauled into the cabin. Two minutes later Morris opened the door and walked in. "You won your wager, Scott, and you can have the cold potato for your breakfast to-morrow morning," said Morris as he entered. "Now, little fellow, just poke your head into that window, like a pretty picture in a frame, and keep a sharp lookout forward to see that Gray don't come aft to disturb proceedings. Felix, just do the same at the opposite window," said Scott, who was doubled up on the floor like a Turk, at work on the line he had obtained.