She must have overheard their plans, before she hastily scratched off the note desperately; and yet those plans might have been changed.

However, if so, why were these people--accomplices of Hobart no doubt--fleeing in the yacht, seeking to conceal their identity in an effort to disappear?
What were they fleeing from?
Why were they so fearful of discovery by the police?
What would cause them to kidnap him, merely on suspicion that he was a friend of Natalie Coolidge?
The very act was proof positive of the desperation of their crime.

It could be accounted for on no other theory.
West paced the narrow space, his brain whirling, as he attempted to reason the affair out, his own helplessness becoming more and more apparent.

What could he do?
There was but one answer--absolutely nothing as he was then situated.

He could only wait for some movement on the part of the others; his fate was out of his own hands; he had been a fool, and must pay the price.