I must and will solve the mystery surrounding the handful of men who burrow in the bowels of this island.
So it is under the carapace of Back Cup that Count d'Artigas has established himself! This cavity, the existence of which is not even suspected, is his home when he is not sailing in the _Ebba_ along the coasts of the new world or the old.

This is the unknown retreat he has discovered, to which access is obtained by a submarine passage twelve or fifteen feet below the surface of the ocean.
Why has he severed himself from the world?
What has been his past?
If, as I suspect, this name of d'Artigas and this title of Count are assumed, what motive has he for hiding his identity?
Has he been banished, is he an outcast of society that he should have selected this place above all others?
Am I not in the power of an evildoer anxious to ensure impunity for his crimes and to defy the law by seeking refuge in this undiscoverable burrow?
I have the right of supposing anything in the case of this suspicious foreigner, and I exercise it.
Then the question to which I have never been able to suggest a satisfactory answer once more surges into my mind.

Why was Thomas Roch abducted from Healthful House in the manner already fully described?
Does the Count d'Artigas hope to force from him the secret of his fulgurator with a view to utilizing it for the defence of Back Cup in case his retreat should by chance be discovered?
Hardly.

It would be easy enough to starve the gang out of Back Cup, by preventing the tug from supplying them with provisions.

On the other hand, the schooner could never break through the investing lines, and if she did her description would be known in every port.