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He had learned to be a sailor and an engineer in his repeated cruises in the Bellevite, his father's large steam yacht, now a man-of-war in the navy. In two years the young man had worked his way up to the rank of lieutenant.
The weary months of hard work are forgotten, and you are quite as apt to think of your first velocipede, or of the pie that is awaiting you in the boathouse, as of victory and defeat. And a yacht race, with a pair of rivals on your beam, is very much the same. As I sat with my feet dangling over the washboard, I reflected, once or twice, that we were engaged in a race.
Pickersgill had, of course, observed the motions of the yacht; had seen her wear on chase, hoist her ensign and pendant, and fire her gun. "Well," said he, "this is the blackest ingratitude; to be attacked by the very people whom we smuggle for. I only wish she may come up with us; and, let her attempt to interfere, she shall rue the day: I don't much like this, though."
"The past does not concern me, the future does," she answered. "You may appreciate my general idea of making things safe. I fancy this yacht will be cast away on a lonely spot on the French coast. I know the spot, and I expect one or two persons will be drowned. That will be quite natural, won't it? Should the accident chance to be heard of at Folkestone, it will be surmised that I am drowned.
"I don't think it would do Emily any good, or you either. It would certainly do me none. It is a kind of luxury that a man should not attempt to enjoy unless he can afford it easily." "A luxury!" "Yes, a luxury; just as much as a four-in-hand coach or a yacht. Men go into Parliament because it gives them fashion, position, and power." "I should go to serve my country."
The professor may not have heard, and in a monotone continued: "The man who made it knew his business; therefore he is a student of this type of explosives; therefore a police agent, a what you call crank like myself, or a destroying criminal that is, an anarchist. Therefore he is the last named, since neither of the others would want to blow up a gentleman's yacht.
It was truly a perilous moment, and it looked as if the mighty waves would swamp the Old Glory before the wreckage could be cleared away. The girls stood at a cabin window watching the work and ready to leap out if the yacht should start to go down. "There it goes!" cried Dick, at last, and gave another stroke with the ax.
For one thing, weather permitting, they would all breakfast at twelve on the yacht, and then sail about the harbor, and come home in the sunset. The day was indeed charming, so stimulating as to raise the value of real estate, and incite everybody to go off in search of adventure, in wagons, in walking parties, in boats.
Then we'll know how the ground lies." The fellow crept away unseen, and McAdams gripped West's hand. "Say, but this is mighty good luck, old boy," he blurted out. "I was afraid you'd gone down in that yacht last night." "You were! How did you know about it?" "Stumbled on to the story, the way most detectives solve their mysteries.
A fortnight later there came a sad letter from home. My father's yacht, the Hope, which, after the custom of those days, was not insured, and was loaded for the most part with fish, which my father had bought at his own cost, had been wrecked on the way from Bergen in a storm on Stadt Sea. The ship had sprung a leak, and late in the afternoon had to be run ashore.
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