Chapter 7

TWO DAYS AT SEA.

Perhaps--should circumstances render it necessary--I may be induced to
tell the Count d'Artigas that I am Simon Hart, the engineer. Who knows
but what I may receive more consideration than if I remain Warder
Gaydon? This measure, however, demands reflection. I have always been
dominated by the thought that if the owner of the _Ebba_ kidnapped the
French inventor, it was in the hope of getting possession of Roch's
fulgurator, for which, neither the old nor new continent would pay the
impossible price demanded. In that case the best thing I can do is to
remain Warder Gaydon, on the chance that I may be allowed to continue
in attendance upon him. In this way, if Thomas Roch should ever
divulge his secret, I may learn what it was impossible to do at
Healthful House, and can act accordingly.

Meanwhile, where is the _Ebba_ bound?--first question.

Who and what is the Count d'Artigas?--second question.

The first will be answered in a few days' time, no doubt, in view of
the rapidity with which we are ripping through the water, under the
action of a means of propulsion that I shall end by finding out
all about. As regards the second, I am by no means so sure that my
curiosity will ever be gratified.

In my opinion this enigmatical personage has an all important reason
for hiding his origin, and I am afraid there is no indication by which
I can gauge his nationality. If the Count d'Artigas speaks English
fluently--and I was able to assure myself of that fact during his
visit to Pavilion No. 17,--he pronounces it with a harsh, vibrating
accent, which is not to be found among the peoples of northern
latitudes. I do not remember ever to have heard anything like it in
the course of my travels either in the Old or New World--unless it
be the harshness characteristic of the idioms in use among the Malays.
And, in truth, with his olive, verging on copper-tinted skin, his
jet-black, crinkly hair, his piercing, deep-set, restless eyes, his
square shoulders and marked muscular development, it is by no means
unlikely that he belongs to one of the extreme Eastern races.

I believe this name of d'Artigas is an assumed one, and his title of
Count likewise. If his schooner bears a Norwegian name, he at any rate
is not of Scandinavian origin. He has nothing of the races of Northern
Europe about him.

But whoever and whatever he may be, this man abducted Thomas Roch--and
me with him--with no good intention, I'll be bound.

But what I should like to know is, has he acted as the agent of a
foreign power, or on his own account? Does he wish to profit alone by
Thomas Roch's invention, and is he in the position to dispose of it
profitably? That is another question that I cannot