“Not here? Where is he, Felix?” she asked with an expression of alarm on her face. “He and Captain Ringgold went on shore.” “And left me here?” she gasped. In gentle and sympathetic tones he told her what had occurred. The mate, who had been friendly and had offered to assist them in finding a suitable place to land the lady, had deceived them, and left them on shore. Mrs. Belgrave, trembling with emotion and terror, asked him to go into her room. “What will become of me?” cried the poor woman, giving way to a flood of tears. “Don’t be afraid, Mrs. Belgrave; I will take as good care of you as Louis could if he were here,” said Felix earnestly. “What can you do against Scoble and the mate? I know you will do all you can; but you will be powerless against these men,” sobbed Mrs. Belgrave. “Not quite; I got the better of them a little while ago when they were going to turn you out of your room,” replied Felix, giving her the details of the defence he had made. “But you will not shoot them?” inquired she, fixing her gaze upon him. “I should have fired if necessary; but I should have taken care to disable them only.” “But they would fire upon you, Felix.” “They have nothing to fire with, for we took possession of all the weapons on board this forenoon.” Mrs. Belgrave suddenly braced herself up, and her companion was surprised to see a smile on her face. “Why am I weeping? I have been childish, and I am glad, as I ought to be, instead of sorry that things have taken this turn,” said she a moment later. “Louis is not here, and he is out of the reach of Scoble! The villain will not harm me, and he has the wickedest intentions in regard to my son. I am happy now.” She looked as though she was really happy, and she begged Felix not to expose himself to any danger as he left the room. Neither the captain nor the mate came below again during the night; and at sunrise the Maud was at anchor in a little inlet sixteen miles south of Sandy Hook. CHAPTER XXIII THE SEARCH FOR THE MAUD The sun rose in a nearly clear sky, with a fresh breeze from the north-west, as Captain Ringgold had predicted, and the change in the direction of the wind had knocked down the sea. At sunrise the Blanche was over thirty miles south-east of Sandy Hook, for this was the course agreed upon by the two captains. They had no information whatever in regard to the course or the movements of the Maud. On the one hand she might have gone into some cove, bay, or inlet which she had visited before; and on the other hand it was possible that she had laid her course directly for Bermuda. “The rascal knows that I am as much interested in this affair as though Mrs. Belgrave were my own sister,” said the captain from the Park. “He knows, or he ought to know, that neither Louis nor I will give up the pursuit till we recover the lady.”