"Yes; I brought her along myself."
"Alone?"
"There were two of us, Mark and I—why? what are you driving at?"
"Just putting some broken threads together. Then Natalie Coolidge is not on this yacht?"
"I should say not. What would we be doing with her out here?"
"Where is she then?"
"Oh, I begin to see what brought you aboard so easily, West. You thought we had the lady kidnapped, and was sailing off with her. Some stunt that. What put the idea in your head?"
West hesitated a moment, but decided a truthful answer would do no harm.
"I knew an automobile had driven out of the alley back of Mike's Place; and that a woman was in it. When I got away a little later, I picked up a message—a note which had been dropped. It was written in a woman's hand but unsigned—"
"The little cat! She dropped it?"