"Because I don't think England, France or Germany would stand for any such thing as that. It's heathens' work, and nothing less—or private spite."
"And why private spite?"
"Oh, easily. Somebody may be mad because he didn't get a fat position from the President, or something like that. You know how much wire-pulling there is at Washington," concluded Oscar.
The news interested everybody, and when the papers came on board each read the reports on the case closely. But nothing new had been learned, excepting that it was practically certain Martha Adams had been carried off to some foreign warship lying off Chesapeake Bay.
"I'd like to catch the rascals who abducted her," sighed Captain Oscar, after finishing the reading of the newspapers.
"After the reward, eh?" laughed Andy.
"Humph! I wasn't thinking of the reward. Martha Adams is the sweetest girl I ever——" He broke off short, and as Andy looked at him closely he blushed in spite of himself.
Oscar had seen Martha Adams three times while the girl was at the shipyard with her father and others.
"Oho! so that is how the wind blows," cried the lieutenant. "Well, it's a long step to a President's daughter, captain, but who knows what you'll be when this war is over—if the Holland XI. keeps on as she has begun?"
"Andy, you get on deck," came quickly, and the lieutenant did so, but with a broad grin on his face. He knew that Oscar had met Martha Adams and had "gone sweet" on the President's only child in those days.