From London, he made his way in the same manner, to Amsterdam, where the mercantile house with which he was connected being known, he found no difficulty in securing a passage for New York. Billings now for the first time heard the story of Hellena's mysterious disappearance. It immediately occurred to him that Captain Flint was some way concerned in the affair not withstanding his positive denial that he knew anything of the matter further than he had already made known. The capture of Captain Flint, and the other two pirates of course led to the arrest of Jones Bradley who had been left in charge of the schooner. He was found on board of the vessel, which was lying a short distance up the river, and arrested before he had learned the fate of his comrades. He was cast into prison with the rest, though each occupied a separate cell. As no good reason could be given for delaying the punishment of the prisoners, their trial was commenced immediately. The evidence against them was too clear to make a long trial necessary. They were all condemned to death with the exception of Jones Bradley, whose punishment on account of his not engaged in last affair, and having recommended mercy in the case of Henry Billings, was committed to imprisonment for life. When the time came for the carrying out of sentence of the three who had been condemned to death, it was found that one of them was missing and that one, the greatest villain of them all, Captain Flint himself! How could this have happened? No one had visited him on the previous day but Carl Rosenthrall, and he was a magistrate, and surely he would be the last one to aid in the escape of a prisoner! That he was gone however, was a fact. There was no disputing that. But If it were a fact that he had made his escape, it was equally true, that he could not have gone very far, and the community were not in the humor to let such a desperate character as he was now known to be, escape without making a strenuous effort to recapture him. The execution of the two who had been sentenced to die at the same time, was delayed for a few days in the hope of learning from them, the places where Flint would most probably fly to, but they maintained a sullen silence on the subject. They then applied to Jones Bradley with, at first, no better result. But when Henry Billings, who was one of those appointed to visit him, happened to allude to the strange fate of Hellena Rosenthrall, he hesitated a moment, and then said he knew where the girl was, and that she had been captured by Captain Flint, and kept in close confinement by him. He had no wish he said to betray his old commander, though he knew that he had been treated badly by him, but he would like to save the young woman. Captain Flint might be in the same place, but if he was, he thought that he would kill the girl sooner than give her up.