placed under arrest as soon as we can get an officer."
"Don't do that! I never had any trouble before and I don't want it now. I'll help you all I can—if what you say its true, and that man is your father."
After that the captain was quite willing to talk, and he told how Crabtree and Japson had come to him and questioned him about the schopner, and finally chartered the craft for a week. They had at first wanted to pay him at the end of the time, but he had insisted upon receiving his money in advance and it was then paid over. He had been told that the strange man was Crabtree's brother, who had gone crazy because of the loss of his money in a Western irrigation scheme.
"They said they would take him down the coast for three or four days, to brace him up a bit. Then we were to run in at Absecon, near Atlantic City, and land all hands. They said they would go from Atlantic City to Lakewood, where the sanitarium was located."
"Probably they intended to let him go at Absecon and then deny that they had ever touched him," said Dick.
"Maybe—I don't know anything abow that," replied the captain.
