Only I should like to know why all the vessels which happen to be in Pamlico Sound to-day are being subjected to this formality." "I see no reason why you should not be informed, Monsieur the Count," replied the officer.

"The governor of North Carolina has been apprised that Healthful House has been broken into and two persons kidnapped, and the authorities merely wish to satisfy themselves that the persons carried off have not been embarked during the night." "Is it possible ?" exclaimed the Count, feigning surprise.

"And who are the persons who have thus disappeared from Healthful House ?" "An inventor--a madman--and his keeper." "A madman, sir?
Do you, may I ask, refer to the Frenchman, Thomas Roch ?" "The same." "The Thomas Roch whom I saw yesterday during my visit to the establishment--whom I questioned in presence of the director--who was seized with a violent paroxysm just as Captain Spade and I were leaving ?" The officer observed the stranger with the keenest attention, in an effort to surprise anything suspicious in his attitude or remarks.
"It is incredible!" added the Count, as though he had just heard about the outrage for the first time.
"I can easily understand, sir, how uneasy the authorities must be," he went on, "in view of Thomas Roch's personality, and I cannot but approve of the measures taken.

I need hardly say that neither the French inventor nor his keeper is on board the _Ebba_.

However, you can assure yourself of the fact by examining the schooner as minutely as you desire.