"I don't care! I believe it!" All this while preparations had been under way aboard the steamer to lower a small boat, but there seemed to be some delay. Meanwhile Jack Jepson remained as lookout on the _Mary Ellen_, though there was no need of him there, for the schooner was now merely drifting, with sails aback, and the steamer, too, was at the call of the wind and currents. "Come on, mate!" hoarsely whispered a sailor to Jack. "Slip below, mate, and we'll hide you. If they try to take you, we'll stand 'em off. I don't like the Britishers anyhow. I was shanghaied into one of their lime-juicers once, an' I never forgot it! Slip below!" "No, I'll take my medicine!" said Jack grimly. "Might as well get it done with. This thing has been hangin' over my head a number of years now, and I'll be glad to hear the last of it. It's a terrible thing for an innocent man." "Perhaps some way may be found for clearing you," suggested Alice. "I'll speak to my father. He knows some prominent lawyers in New York, and they will induce the government to take up your case. Go quietly, Jack, and we'll do all we can for you." "Oh, I shan't raise a row, Miss, never fear. No good'd come of that, and it would only make trouble. I'll go quietly enough." "Ha! What is going on?" asked Mr. DeVere, who had been down below. "Has anything happened?" Alice and Ruth tried to tell him at once, the former eager to enlist his sympathies in Jack's cause. Mr. DeVere promised readily enough. "Though I can't hold out any hope for you," he said. "I know nothing of law, but international affairs are always slow." "But I ought to get justice in the end, ought I not?" asked Jack, respectfully. "You ought, my man, and I'll do all I can for you," said Mr. DeVere. "Oh, what a pretty sight!" exclaimed the voice of Miss Dixon, as she emerged from a companionway with her chum, Miss Pennington. "Isn't it romantic--stopping to speak to a steamer at sea?" "Delightful," agreed Miss Pennington. "I wonder if the captain of the steamer will ask us to tea? It's a British vessel, and Englishmen are so fond of tea." "Yes, and they are so romantic and good-looking," agreed Miss Dixon. "But perhaps this is only for moving pictures." "Oh, pshaw! Perhaps it is!" sighed her companion, and the two of them, who had been taking surreptitious glances in mirrors, enclosed in the flaps of their bags, ceased "primping," until they could be sure whether or not there was any object in it. "What's it all about?" asked Miss Dixon again. "Oh, they're going to take one of our men, I believe," said Pop Snooks, the property "angel," as the ladies often called him. "Oh dear! What are they? Pirates?" gasped Miss Pennington. "No, it's Jack Jepson they're after. Some old charge, I believe." "Ha! I knew something would happen on this voyage!" exclaimed Mr. Pepper Sneed. "I felt it in my bones all along." "Good thing you're not disappointed," murmured Alice.