“Of course,” agreed the millionaire, “but we are not going to. We are going to catch those fellows and get back the stolen boy! It was some of the kidnappers, Madame Androletti, who I believe cut us adrift. Then came this storm, and one of our motors had to go out of commission just at the wrong moment. But don’t worry. We’ll pull through all right yet, and we’ll have your boy, before many hours—that is, if he’s aboard the boat we’re after, as I believe he is.”
“Oh, and if he should not be!” murmured the singer. “I do not think I could stand another disappointment!”
“We’ll find him!” cried Larry, with a confidence he did not altogether feel.
“Hadn’t you ladies better go to your staterooms, and lie down?” suggested Mr. Potter.
“Oh, no, daddy, let us stay here,” pleaded Grace. “It’s so lonesome to be shut up all by yourself when there’s a storm. Let us stay here.”
“Very well,” he assented. “Perhaps it will be better so. I’ll have the cook get us up something to eat—some coffee—that is, if we can drink it without spilling it all over us.”
Indeed, this would probably be the case, for the yacht was pitching and tossing at really alarming angles. Now she would be up on the crest of a mountain of water, and, a moment later she would slide down the inclined side of it, into a valley of foam. Again, she would pitch from side to side like a cork in a whirlpool.
“Look after the ladies, Larry, until I see how things are going,” directed Mr. Potter, as he went to rouse the cook. But there was no need of this, as every man in the crew had been up some time, doing all he could for the safety of the craft, the cook included. Soon the appetizing smell of coffee came to the cabin, though how the cook made it in his pitching and tossing galley was a mystery.
“We’re doing very well,” Mr. Potter came back to report, after having paid a visit to the engine-room. “The stalled motor, which blew out a cylinder gasket, will soon be repaired, and we can make better speed.”
As it was, the Elizabeth was just able to hold her own in the storm. She was a large and powerful motorboat, and, even running at half speed, she was quite fast. But it was no ordinary blow that she found herself in after the cable had been cut.