"Don't you know the word," he said surprised. "Why I thought every one knew that. It isn't altogether a criminal class word, for it belongs partly to a class that call themselves traders. The whalers and others do it when they find it hard to get men; as a rule men nowadays don't like shipping on long whaling voyages. They get such men delivered on board by the crimps, drunk or, more generally, hocussed. Then when they get near a port they make them drunk again, which isn't much of a job after all, and they don't make no kick; or if things are serious they hocus them a bit again. So they keep them one way or another out of sight for months or perhaps years. Sometimes, when those that are not too particular want to get rid of an inconvenient relative--or mayhap a witness, or a creditor, or an inconvenient husband--they just square some crimp. When he gets his hooks on the proper party, there ain't no more jamboree for him, except between the bulwarks, till the time is up, or the money spent, or whatever he is put away for is fixed as they want it." This was a new and enlightening horror to me. It opened up fresh possibilities of distress for both Marjory and myself. As I thought of this, I could not but be grateful to Montgomery for his message to the man-of-war's men. If once they succeeded in getting Marjory on board the _Seagull_ we should, in the blindness of our ignorance as to her whereabouts, be powerless to help her. The last word of her message through the books might be a clue. It was some place, and was east of Banff. I got the big map out at once and began to search. Surely enough, there it was. Some seven or eight miles east of Banff was a little port in a land-locked bay called Gardentown. At once I sent off a wire to Adams at Aberdeen, and another to Montgomery to Peterhead on chance that it might reach him even before that which Adams, whom he kept posted as to his every movement, would be sure to send to him! It was above all things necessary that we should locate first the _Seagull_ and then the _Wilhelmina_. If we could get hold of either vessel we might frustrate the plans of the miscreants. I asked Adams to have the touching of the _Wilhelmina_ at any port telegraphed to him at once from Lloyds. He was quite awake at his end of the wire; I got back an answer in an incredibly short time: "_Wilhelmina_ left Lerwick for Arctic seas yesterday." Very shortly afterwards another telegram came from him: "Montgomery reports _Seagull_ fishing this summer at Fraserburgh. Went out with fleet two days ago." Almost immediately after this came a third telegram from him: "_Keystone_ notified. Am coming to join you."