"He cannot be found, though his father searched from six o'clock this morning till the time I left." "When did his father first miss him?" "It appears that Nick tended bar till after midnight. The old man was too full to sit up any longer, and he left Nick to close the bar. The captain says his son did not sleep in the house last night, and he has no idea when or where he went." "Very likely he left in the first train this morning," I suggested, recalling all that had passed between Nick and me the day before. "No, he didn't, for his father went to the station, and passed through the train just before it started. He did not leave by railroad, or come up the river in the Hampton, or I should have seen him." "Nick has something like sharpness, and he knew he could not get off on the morning train. But he could have walked to Baldwin between the time he closed the bar and nine o'clock, and taken the train there," I added. "I don't believe Nick walked twenty miles: he is too lazy to do anything of the kind," added Cornwood, with a smile of incredulity. "But he is not a great loss to his father; and he may make his way when he is thrown on his own resources. There was another piece of news in Jacksonville this morning." "What was that?" I inquired. "But I suppose you know more about this matter than any one in the city. It was said that Colonel Shepard's yacht, in which he was going to New Orleans, left without him or his family. Is that a fact?" "It is true, to the letter," I replied. "I took the colonel and his family on board of the Sylvania, and they are in the cabin now." "That's very odd--that Captain Blastblow should leave without his passengers," added Cornwood. "What does it mean?" "That is more than any one on board of the Sylvania can explain." "Was there any money on board of the yacht--I forget her name, though I have heard you mention it several times?" "The Islander: she is the twin-sister of the Sylvania, and as near like her as one pin is like another," I answered. "I am not aware that there was any money on board of her; and I should say there was not, for the passengers had not sent their baggage on board." "Does any one know where she is gone?" "She is bound to the south, for we saw her off St. Johns' bar headed in that direction. The pilots off the St. Augustine light saw her to-day noon. We were chasing her when our passengers desired to get out of the heavy sea." "I should think Colonel Shepard would have some idea of the motives of Captain Blastblow." "He has no more idea than I have, and I have none. We are inclined to believe that the captain misunderstood his orders, for Colonel Shepard was in doubt whether or not he should be able to go up the Mississippi with us. When the mail got in yesterday afternoon, he wrote a card with his instructions to Captain Blastblow on it, and sent it off to the Islander by Nick Boomsby, who happened to be talking to me in the post-office at the time."