[50]

[50]

“Come along forward, Max,” he called. “I have a suggestion to make.”

“Well, what is it?” asked Kane, when he appeared.

“As nearly as I can determine from the description you have given me, the yacht is lying in relatively the same position she occupied when the pirate came aboard of her, is she not? Isn’t she headed about the same?”

“I should say that she could not be put more exactly in the same spot,” replied Max.

“In that case,” said Nick, pointing with his finger, “the pirate craft should have been lying about yonder—so, while Captain Sparkle was giving you his original impersonation of Hamlet.”

“Yes; her bow must have been about yonder, and her stern out there”—indicating with gestures the positions he described.

“And when Sparkle and his men went over the side from the yacht to their own craft, where is the point where they did that?”

“Right here—directly over our heads.”

“When the pirate craft left you, she must have gone in that direction,” continued the detective, pointing toward the Sound.

“Yes, that is about it.”

“All right. Thank you.”

Nick had been clinging to the bowsprit-stay while he was talking; but now, without more remarks, he released his hold upon it and permitted himself to sink slowly into the depths.

Kane happened to be looking away from him at that[51] moment, and he continued, through several sentences, his description of how the pirate had sailed out of the harbor into the open Sound, where she had finally disappeared. Perceiving, presently, that his description was not received with the enthusiasm he had a right to expect, he turned his head, and for the first time discovered that the detective was no longer there.

[51]

Kane was a strong swimmer, but was not overfond of diving, and so, instead of pursuing the detective, who he expected had merely gone under the vessel in order to reach the 

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