"How?"
"Listen. They pay a certain respect to us—hold us in some fear, in fact—and the boys, who are regular rovers, like their parents and friends, have only permission to cruise about in their little yacht."
"How did you learn this?"
"From Marietta, the servant of the Harkaways."
"Hah!"
"Now, with care, the boys might be lured, perhaps, away from the part of the coast which they know, and let them once touch the shore out of sight and hearing of their friends—"
"I see, I see," ejaculated the widow of Mathias. "I can entrap them, I believe. But tell me first, what is the object of securing these two boys?"
"The object!" ejaculated Hunston. "Why, surely that is clear enough. Let us once get hold of them, and we can make any terms we like with the father and friends. We shall have to dictate the conditions, and Harkaway will have no choice but to accept them."
"I see, I see," cried Diana, excitedly. "Leave the rest to me; I'll undertake to get them into our power."
"How?"