“If he knows it, Flynn must be in Belfast.”
“I told you a short time ago that it would be just like the fellow to come back here.”
“Well, he wants to keep away from me!” growled Hodge, tenderly touching his head. “I have a grudge in store for that whelp, and, if he lives, I’ll settle the score some time.”
“I am thinking about the yacht,” said Jack. “We have left it entirely alone, thinking there was no need to watch it now.”
“That’s so. Flynn claims that the _White Wings_ belongs to him.”
“And he has made more than one attempt to get possession of her.”
“Isn’t it likely that he might make another?”
“It’s more than likely. We must see Frank and talk the matter over. Somebody must be sent to the yacht immediately.”
They went in and found Frank, and Diamond suggested that they return to the yacht at once.
“I think we have not been careful,” he said. “We should not have left her unguarded.”
“I am beginning to think so myself,” confessed Frank; but he said nothing about Mart Woodock and the warning he had received.
The party was breaking up. Already some of the guests had departed. Frank found Hans and Bruce, and told them it was time to leave.
“Vale,” said Hans, “I haf had der pest time you efer saw!”
They found Mabel Mischief and told her how much they had enjoyed the evening, after which they bade her good-night.
“By nine o’clock to-morrow morning, if the wind is favorable.”
“Hattie and I will come down to see you off.”
“Yes,” laughed Hattie, who was standing beside Mabel, “we will be there.”
The girls shook hands with them all, one after another. As they started out, Frank began to whistle “Nellie Was a Lady,” and the others, with the exception of Diamond, joined in. This was turned into “Marching Through Georgia,” to which tune they stepped off briskly toward the steamboat wharf.
As they came down the street leading to the wharf the whistling died out, and they walked on in silence.
“The wind is off shore to-night,” said Diamond.
“I hope it will hold that way in the morning,” said Frank.
They reached the wharf. Jack hurried forward and was the first to reach the steps, at the foot of which they had left their boat. He went down the steps quickly, and then a cry came from his lips.
“It is, all the same. Somebody has stolen her.”