XIII.

All through the day of January 18, although he could not know the true significance of the date, Ray Folsom was restless. It was as if a germ of excitement had wafted across the sea, as if trouble in New York were breeding trouble in the Isle of Skye. Eve, too, appeared to feel a subtle something.

After all, there was something more tangible that entered into the business. Starbuck himself had been feverishly active, and late in the afternoon Miss Dollis had surprised the prisoners by going out to the Raven, where she remained.

There were other indications that something was about to happen. Grundy and Mapes seemed more cheerful; Koli acted as if a strain had been lifted.

All of which caused Ray to wonder and to fidget. The wireless operator came ashore at the time of Miss Dollis’s departure, and with him Starbuck held a long conference.

As night drew in, the latter manifested no signs of retiring as usual. He drank far more than his wonted quantity at dinner. Koli and the two men, Ray thought, had been indulging overmuch. It showed less on the Jap, but his eyes were brighter and his movements more spasmodic.

Ray said to Eve: “Something is up. I feel it.”

And she replied: “So do I.”

And both of them were wide awake as possible when, about midnight, the wireless took up its sputtering song. That was the message which Wilbur Gaylord was to receive at eight o’clock, and which caused him to rush into fresh activity as recorded above.

Starbuck, who had been glancing at his watch, now slumped into a chair and stared moodily into the fire. Miss Gaylord yawned, said “Good night” shortly, and slipped away to her room. But Ray knew, somehow, that she was not sleepy.

He felt action in the air. He knew that he meant to do something, but did not know just what. Koli padded along and locked Eve’s door, a proceeding which had been omitted heretofore owing probably to the fact that Miss Dollis had shared a small suite with the girl up to that time.

Grundy and Mapes slunk away to their quarters in the servants’ wing of the castle, and Koli looked suggestively at Ray.

The latter, in turn, stared at Starbuck, who seemed half asleep with a whisky and soda clutched in his right hand. Ray got the impression of a player who has just won a hard game but who is weary to the point of listlessness as a result.

He rose and sauntered off toward his bedroom, and close on his heels came Koli.

At his bedroom door Ray paused, fumbled with the knob. The plan in his mind was not half formed; in fact, he had no detailed plan. Nevertheless he entertained a cocksure feeling that whatever he might do would be all right.

Whereupon he suddenly whirled about, seized the astonished Koli by the throat and shut off the Jap’s wind so swiftly and so completely that he had no opportunity of defending himself and the hand that instinctively moved toward his gun pocket never reached it.

Instead, Ray had the weapon out in a twinkling, and with it dealt the luckless Koli a smart crack on the skull. The little man slumped without a sound.

Hastily dragging him into his room, Ray bound him crudely but effectively with a bed sheet and, elated with his start, stole back toward the drawing-room where Starbuck lingered.

Slipping into the room with the swiftness of a cat, Ray jammed the gun into the drowsing Starbuck’s ribs, with a rasping:

“Stick ’em up, damn you, quick!”

Starbuck’s eyes flew to Ray’s determined face, and his hands shot heavenward.

Ray deftly frisked him. He wanted to laugh; the thing had been so easy.

With Starbuck’s gun in his coat pocket, he backed that reluctant individual along the corridor until Eve’s chamber was reached. Turning the key, Ray tapped gently.

As if expecting some such summons, Eve appeared instantly, fully dressed. The shock of amazement at what she beheld passed swiftly, and at Ray’s direction the girl bound their host’s hands securely behind his back and mounted guard over him while Ray made his way to the servants’ wing.

Grundy and Mapes, well fuddled with the stout they had consumed, proved easy victims, and ten minutes later, herded by the menacing guns in the hands of Ray and Eve, they dragged their master and Koli into the wine cellar, where they were securely locked while Ray, flushed with victory, sought new fields to conquer.

At first he considered tackling the yacht, forcing Trumper to take them to Glasgow. But sounder reason prevailed.

There was the wireless man and the Dollis woman and the skipper himself, to say nothing of the two huskies who, although thoroughly cowed at the moment, loomed as potential enemies, given half a chance. No. Instead, he determined to reach the Isle of Skye, and from there summon aid.

The power tender was on the yacht, but there was a dory at the dock, and into this the two prisoners forced their late guards.

“Make it snappy,” Ray ordered. “I want to get well away before daylight.”

Thus, for close to three hours, he and Eve sat astern, gleefully watching the disgruntled pair at the oars struggling with the sea. But in the light of early morning they made port, turned their victims over to an astounded constable, and prepared a sizzling cable which would stir two hemispheres.