“now, mr. burton,” said the detective, when the story was finished, “i wish you would do me a favor.”

“certainly. what will it be, mr. carter?”

“i wish you would keep your men aboard the yacht for the remainder of the day and evening, for one thing.”

“i’ll do that, certainly.”

“and, in addition to that, instruct them to say nothing of what has happened to anybody, on pain of dismissal.”

“all right; and that, also.”

“next, i wish you would keep silent yourself—until to-morrow morning.”

“humph! well, all right. it spoils a good story, however.”

“it is possible that we may have a better one to tell by that time.”

“how is that?”

“i suppose you are aware who i am, are you not?”

“yes.”

“detectives are always excusable for having theories.”

“sure! if they had no theories, they would never have facts, would they?”

“probably not. now, i’ve got a theory about this matter, although it is built upon a very weak and tottering foundation. however, if my theory happens to be a good one—that is, if it amounts to anything at all, it[66] will bring captain sparkle into this harbor to-night, among the fleet which will be anchored here.”

“you don’t mean it!”

“i do mean it—provided my theory is correct. if it is false, he will not come, and in that way i will know that it is false.”

“while if he does come, you will know that it is correct?”

“not positively; but i will be pretty well satisfied on that point.”

“all right.”

“now, if there should happen to be much talk at the club to-night about this pirate and his daring robberies, the owners of the yachts would make a rush for their craft anchored here. they would desert the club-house, go aboard their vessels, arm themselves, and wait up the whole night in the expectation of seeing the pirate. it is true that they would make more or less of a joke of it, but they would do it all the same, and in that case, if my theory still holds good, the pirate chief would receive a signal of some kind, and he would not show up.”

“i see the point, only i don’t understand about the signal.”

“that is a part of my theory.”

“do i understand you to mean that some person connected with the club is in league with the pirate, and would notify him not to appear?”

“no; i do not exactly mean all that. but my meaning is near enough to that idea, so that i wish nothing to be said at present.”

[67]

“very good. i’ll be mum.”

“now, i wish you two to go ashore together. i want you, kane, to call up my house over the telephone, and get my assistant, chick, on the other end of the wire. ask him to come out here as soon as possible, by rail. he can get here in about fifty minutes.”

“yes.”

“please arrange to meet him somewhere—at the station would be the best place—and bring him quietly to the yacht.”

“here, you mean? to the goalong?”

“yes.”

“very good.”

“then go back to the club-house and stay there until i send for you.”

“humph! what the devil—— i say, what are you going to do?”

“i’m going to stay here.”

“and wait for the pirate to show up?”

“yes.”

“alone?”

“no; i will have chick with me.”

“well, i register a kick, carter.”

“why so?”

“because i wish to be here, too, to see the fun. if you will make that amendment to your orders, i’m your man.”

nick shook his head negatively.

“i am afraid that won’t do,” he said. “you see, if you do that, you’ll end by having the ladies, the count, and[68] perhaps half a dozen guests out here, and i don’t want them—particularly one of them. you understand.”

“yes. but if i could assure you that we would not be troubled—eh? if burton, here, will do the ashore act for me, and i can arrange it so that we won’t be bothered—eh?”

“why, in that case i will have no objections.”

“all right. i’ll go now. come along, burton. we’ll stop at your yacht on the way, and give your men the necessary orders. hello! it is about time we were doing it, too. there comes myers with the wyoming, and if i am not mistaken, that is harcourt out beyond him.”

as he was about to leave the deck of the yacht to leap into the gig awaiting him, he added:

“i’ll attend to that telephone, old chap, and i will bring chick out to you the minute he arrives. i’ll head off the women, too, and i’ll see to it that we are not disturbed out here to-night. i only hope the pirate will show up.”

“i think he will,” replied nick.

when the detective was alone, he seated himself, with a freshly lighted cigar, to think.

“i never built up a theory upon so small a fact before,” he mused. “if anybody else suggested the like of it to me, i would not entertain it; but, all the same, i think intuition has a great deal to do with our decisions in life, and if intuition amounts to a thing, it is as sure as shooting that count cadillac has got something to do with that pirate. it is only a guess, pure and simple,[69] but i have won out more than once on a guess, and, in this particular matter, i can’t hurt the count any by making it, while i may help myself a good deal. the pirate might come in here to-night, anyhow, even if the count has nothing to do with him, for if he is keeping tabs very closely on things, he must know that a lot of yachts will anchor here in the next few hours; but if, on the other hand, the count has got something to do with him, and there should be grounds for alarm, he would find a way to notify mr. pirate to keep off the grass for to-night.”

the afternoon waned and merged into evening. the shadows fell, and night was at hand. the stars came out, and, with them, a small boat pushed off from the shore and approached the yacht.

a few moments later kane, accompanied by chick, came aboard. in the meantime, many yachts and craft had entered the little harbor anchorage, until now, as darkness fell, there was at least a score of them all told, of all sizes, shapes, and designs, and there was no doubt that by ten o’clock there would be at least half as many more.

“i suppose you have figured it all out, nick?” said kane, when he came aboard.

“yes; i have been figuring a little.”

“well, i have saved you one task. i have told chick the whole story: mine and burton’s, too.”

“good! i am glad of that.”

“what time do you figure that captain sparkle will pay us a visit, if he comes at all?”

[70]

“not before toward morning, i imagine.”

“why do you put it so late?”

“well, he will suppose that many of the people here will remain at the club until late, and will still prefer to sleep aboard their yachts.”

“sure. and some of them will do that very thing. however, i have arranged for our particular outfit to remain at the club to-night; and i did another thing, too.”

“what was that?”

“i put burton next to that idea about the count. i had to do it, and burton is all right, you know. if it should turn out that we are entirely mistaken about it, nobody will ever get a word about it out of burton; you can bet your sweet life on that.”

“very good. well, what did you do?”

“i told burton to stick tighter than a brother to the count all the evening, and to keep him and some of the other fellows going till the wee small hours of the morning at that. i don’t want him to get an opportunity to do any of that signaling you talked about.”

“nor i.”

“then i played up sick. knocked out, you know. said i was coming off to the yacht and turn in.”

“that was a good idea, too.”

“now, nick, what is the next thing?”

“the next thing is to wait.”

“that is about the hardest thing in the world to do.”

“that is what we will have to do for the present.[71] there won’t be anything doing at the pirate’s end of the string before two o’clock—if there is then.”

“you are not as confident as you were, are you?”

“oh, yes, i am; but we can never be certain, you know.”

“what is the game, nick?” asked chick quietly.

“we will put on our bathing-suits about midnight, i think,” replied the detective.

“going to take another swim?” asked kane.

“why, yes; i think so; we will if the pirate shows up around here.”

“going to swim aboard of him?”

“just that. if he shows up, i am going aboard of his boat.”

“and then what?”

“i don’t know. events will have to determine that for me.”

“are you going to take me with you?”

it was kane who asked the question, and nick looked at him quietly before he replied.

then he said:

“i don’t know about that, max. i fancy that we will get into considerable of a scrap before we get out of the shadow, if we get inside of her.”

“all the better. i’m a good man to have around in a scrap.”

“i know that; but i hardly think that mrs. kane would thank me——”

“oh, bother mrs. kane! i’m with you to a finish in this thing, nick. put your dollars on that.”

[72]

“well,” laughed the detective, “i cannot keep you from following me, if i start once. only i have got this to say: if you do follow me, you must obey me as implicitly as chick does. from that moment i will be boss, and if you don’t do as i say, i’ll——”

“never mind what you’ll do. you won’t have occasion.”

“all right. now, tell me, which one of all the yachts anchored here would provide the pirate chief with the richest haul? can you tell me that?”

“why, yes. there isn’t the slightest doubt about the answer to that question.”

“all the better. if there is no doubt about it, then the pirate’s information would be as good as ours—eh? now, which one fills the bill?”

“the aurora. she belongs to sam kearney, you know.”

“yes.”

“he carries no end of all sorts of priceless things. he’s got a solid gold dinner set, and all that. besides, just now he is entertaining a large party, and there must be a couple of hundred thousand worth of jewels aboard, at least.”

“and what about his party? are they all ashore?”

“every last one of them. they’ll stay ashore, too. they always do. sam is a great fellow for getting up dinners himself. he likes to cook, and it is one of his fads to bring his parties here, oust the chef, and do the cooking for them. he’s doing it now.”

“the whole club knows that, i suppose.”

[73]

“the whole world knows it, i imagine. he makes no bones of it. one of his regrets about my supposed illness to-night was that i could not eat some new dish he has learned to prepare, but i told him i was sick enough as it was. oh, sam and his party are booked for the night, all right.”

“good!” said nick. “i think we’ll keep watch over the aurora!”