"Oh, Arthur!" he exclaimed, "I can see by your expression that you have obtained important information. Tell me!" he insisted. "Tell me! I must know--even if it's the worst. In these hours of suspense and despair, I've braced myself to stand any shock. Tell me!" Van Dusen answered soothingly. "Roy, old man, the mystery will be solved, I think, and that before long. That is to say, it will be cleared up unless _The Isabel_ founders at sea before we can reach it. I have discovered that in all human probability Miss Marion has been carried away in the yacht by Doctor Garnet." "Are you positive about that?" Roy demanded fiercely. "I am positive this far," came the quiet reply. "Doctor Garnet has not returned to his office since the time when he answered the call to attend Miss Marion on the yacht. It is fairly to be deduced from her message to you that he appeared on board in answer to her summons. I am of the opinion that Doctor Garnet is the one responsible for this outrage. He is either the victim of a sudden fit of insanity, or he has become a man-beast, sacrificing position and honor and every decent instinct in order to gratify a heretofore smoldering lust, which has suddenly flamed forth and got beyond his control." "Your deductings are doubtless right--at least in part," Roy admitted, though with obvious reluctance in his tone. "But I find it hard to believe the possibility of Doctor Garnet's being the brute you suggest. He is universally esteemed not only for his ability, but also for his manliness and his many deeds of kindness and charity. If he has done this thing it must have been as you also suggest because he has gone crazy." Roy mused for a moment, and then spoke with a new note of excitement in his voice. "How do we know that the Doctor was not murdered while on board the yacht, and that the murderer or murderers then made off with the vessel and Marion? Or, perhaps, the tender was capsized and he was drowned along with the caretaker. Afterward the kidnapping may have been done by others who knew nothing whatever of Doctor Garnet." Roy shook his head with decision. "Anyhow," he added, "I cannot believe that Doctor Garnet, in his right mind, could ever have been guilty of such a foul crime." Van Dusen regarded the young man tolerantly, but his smile was a little cynical as he replied: "When you have studied crime as thoroughly as I have during the past few years, Roy, you will not be so confident of finding nothing but good in any particular man, no matter how high his reputation may be. I cannot say with certainty that Doctor Garnet is vile; neither can I say that he is incapable of vileness. But in the work I have to do, I must entertain all possibilities if I would solve the problem."