Chapter 3 - Page 2

"Yes, but I shot them back while we were strolling about, and the
director didn't notice what I had done."

"How are you going to open it?" queried the Count, going to the door.

"Here is the key," replied Spade, producing it.

He had withdrawn it from the lock, where it happened to be, when he
had unbolted the door.

"Capital!" exclaimed the Count. "It couldn't be better. The business
will be easier than I expected. Let us get back to the schooner. At
eight o'clock one of the boats will put you ashore with five men."

"Yes, five men will do," said Captain Spade. "There will be enough of
them to effect our object even if the keeper is aroused and it becomes
necessary to put him out of the way."

"Put him out of the way--well, if it becomes absolutely necessary of
course you must, but it would be better to seize him too and bring him
aboard the _Ebba_ Who knows but what he has already learned a part of
Roch's secret?"

"True."

"Besides, Thomas Roch is used to him, and I don't propose to make him
change his habitudes in any way."

This observation was accompanied by such a significant smile that
Captain Spade could entertain no doubt as to the rôle reserved for the
warder of Healthful House.

The plan to kidnap them both was thus settled, and appeared to have
every chance of being successful; unless during the couple of hours of
daylight that yet remained it was noticed that the key of the door had
been stolen and the bolts drawn back, Captain Spade and his men could
at least count upon being able to enter the park, and the rest, the
captain affirmed, would be easy enough.

Thomas Roch was the only patient in the establishment isolated and
kept under special surveillance. All the other invalids lived in the
main building, or occupied pavilions in the front of the park. The
plan was to try and seize Roch and Gaydon separately and bind and gag
them before they could cry out.

The Count d'Artigas and his companion wended their way to a creek
where one of the _Ebba's_ boats awaited them. The schooner was
anchored two cable lengths from the shore, her sails neatly rolled
upon her yards, which were squared as neatly as those of a pleasure
yacht or of a man-of-war. At the peak of the mainmast a narrow red
pennant was gently swayed by the wind, which came in fitful puffs from
the east.

The Count and the captain jumped into the boat and a few strokes of
the four oars brought them alongside of the schooner. They climbed
on deck and going forward to the jib-boom, leaned over the starboard
bulwark and gazed at an object that floated on the