Havens followed the pointing finger, and soon stood in a small cabin which lay completely under the one deck of the schooner. It was a large room, evidently long used for the storage of such goods as the vessel carried, but one corner was partitioned off by a screen, and here a faded and worn rug, a broken couch, a table, and a couple of chairs proclaimed the home of the master of the craft. Havens took one of the chairs and waited for his host to speak. A clock on the wall showed the hour of half-past two. Directly the captain opened a cupboard and brought forth a bottle of spirits and two glasses. “Help yourself!” he said to Havens. Now Havens had not the slightest notion of taking a drink of liquor. He was a total abstainer, and even had he been in the habit of using intoxicating liquors, he would never have indulged under such circumstances. His watch and money had been taken from him before he had regained consciousness, but his general appearance was that of a man who would be apt to pay roundly for his release in case he was temporarily removed from the society of his friends. However, he poured out a small portion of whiskey and waited for an opportunity to toss it away. The captain of the schooner eyed him maliciously, his undershot jaw set like that of a bulldog. “So you don’t drink, eh?” the captain said, with a snarl. “You may be mistaken!” answered Havens. “Sometimes I do.” “Mistaken, yourself!” shouted the captain. “You thought you’d bribed Mother DeMott, didn’t you? You thought you’d be dropping off the _Nancy_ in the morning and turning us all over to the police, didn’t you?” Havens eyed the man for a moment, too dazed to speak. “In the morning,” the captain sneered, “we set sail for South America with one very prominent passenger on board.” CHAPTER X. A QUEER DISCOVERY. When Ben reached the place where he had left Kit asleep, Carl stood with a searchlight in his hand, examining footprints on the ground. “He wandered away, of course!” Carl said. “He must have done so,” was the puzzled reply. “Because,” Carl went on, “there was no one here to lug him off.” “That’s the supposition!” replied Ben anxiously. “But why should the little customer sneak off without saying a word to us?” demanded Carl. “That isn’t at all like him!” “Perhaps he saw Jimmie’s light in the cavern and went in there,” suggested Ben. “He’s an inquisitive little chap.” The boys went to the western extremity of the canyon and looked down an almost perpendicular wall, nearly a thousand feet in height, to the surging waters of the Pacific ocean. They looked up the vertical walls to the summits outlined against the stars. They threw their lights over the crags at the head of the canyon. “He’s still in here somewhere!” Ben asserted. “I don’t believe any one could get out without using a flying machine!” “Of course, he’s here!” Carl answered.