"I won't!" declared Captain Brisco, and for the moment the heart of Alice warmed to him. She fancied she had misjudged him. But as she looked at him, she saw a look on his face that made her doubt. It was a look that made his words seem insincere. And when the moving picture girl saw the captain speaking in an aside to Hen Lacomb, her doubts were redoubled. "Stand by!" someone on the steamer ordered. "We're sending a boat to take the prisoner." "This is a pretty how-d'-do!" blustered Captain Brisco. "They're going to leave me short-handed, and just at a time when I'm likely to need every man I can get, too," and he cast an anxious look around the horizon. It had suddenly become quite dark. A bank of clouds, slate colored, and fringed with an ominous yellow, had gathered in the west, and there was a moaning in the air as though a far-off wind were sending a message to those in peril to beware of its breath. The sea, too, had a glassy look. The big waves rose sullenly, and sank back into troughs, with an oily smooth motion as though they resented being thus confined. It was like the action of some raging beast in leash. There was a curious oppressiveness in the air, too, and more than one found difficulty in breathing. "What is it? Oh, what is it?" asked Ruth, as she came toward her sister. "I feel as though something terrible were going to happen." "Something _has_ happened!" Alice exclaimed. "They've got poor old Jack! Isn't it a shame, when everything was going so nicely?" "Got him!" questioned Ruth. "What do you mean?" "It's those Britishers! They recognized this ship as the one on which the mutiny occurred. She's been built over--the ship I mean--but the steamer knew her--I mean some officer did. And they're going to take Jack away. You know he told us how he broke out of jail, after he was locked up on an unjust charge. Well, they want him for that, but he doesn't want him to go--at least he pretends he doesn't." Alice paused for breath--she needed it. "Well!" exclaimed Ruth. "You may understand what you mean, but I don't, my dear. Who wants whom, and who doesn't want whom--and what?" Thereupon Alice explained how Captain Brisco had declared Jack should not be taken, and yet how Alice, herself, believed he would give him up. "But what does it all mean--that enmity you say Captain Brisco has against Jack?" Ruth asked Alice, for Alice spoke about the time Jack had fallen overboard, and mentioned how the sailor had said he was tossed over the rail. "I don't know what it means," the younger girl replied. "It is all queer and mysterious, and it's getting worse. But I think there is some secret between Captain Brisco and that Hen Lacomb that Jack has found out, and they're afraid he'll tell. That's why I think they would be glad to see him taken away--no matter what happened to him. It's all very well for Captain Brisco to say he doesn't want Jack to go, but I believe he's glad this happened." "Oh, Alice! What a thing to say!"