"Ah, ha! awake!" he exclaimed.
"You hadn't any reason to suppose I'd be asleep, had you?" inquired Herc blandly.
"No. You boys are too wide-awake altogether. That is why we have taken you off on this cruise," chuckled the anarchist grimly.
"Very considerate of you, I'm sure," rejoined Herc. "And this—this cruise, I presume, it isn't for our health?"
"Hardly," rejoined the other, with a smile; "I mean to make you useful to us and—to the cause!"
His eyes glittered as he spoke. The glare of a fanatic filled them.
"How is your comrade?" he asked the next instant.
Herc saw the trap instantly. Muller had thought to trap him into answering without thought. Had he done so, the crafty anarchist would have known that the boys had been talking together. So Herc assumed his most unworldly expression.
"What, is Ned on board?" he exclaimed.
"You didn't know it?"