felt sure would prove highly remunerative to himself. It had

been nothing less than a bold resolve to call Blanco, Byrne,

"Bony," and "Red" to his side the moment Simms and Ward

revealed the true purpose of their ruse to those on board the

Lotus, and with his henchmen take sides with the men of the

yacht against his former companions.

As he had explained it to Billy Byrne the idea was to

permit Mr. Harding to believe that Theriere and his companions

had been duped by Skipper Simms--that they had had

no idea of the work that they were to be called upon to

perform until the last moment and that then they had done

the only thing they could to protect the passengers and crew

of the Lotus.

"And then," Theriere had concluded, "when they think we

are a band of heroes, and the best friends they have on earth

we'll just naturally be in a position to grab the whole lot of

them, and collect ransoms on ten or fifteen instead of just

one."

"Bully!" exclaimed the mucker. "You sure got some bean,

mate."

As a matter of fact Theriere had had no intention of

carrying the matter as far as he had intimated to Billy except

as a last resort. He had been mightily smitten by the face and

fortune of Barbara Harding and had seen in the trend of

events a possible opportunity of so deeply obligating her

father and herself that when he paid court to her she might

fall a willing victim to his wiles. In this case he would be

obliged to risk nothing, and could make away with his accomplices

by explaining to Mr. Harding that he had been compelled to

concoct this other scheme to obtain their assistance

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