or not but it was the most unhappy night she had ever known twenty times at least she had prayed for herself and for her parents � that she might be saved from harm and that they might be comforted dove gave her a and some black coffee for her of which she partook to please him he had taken so much pains to suit her in the dock came into the cabin sat down at the table and read what he had written the night before he was still busy with the details of the little plan when he had read the sheet before him he glanced at the door of s state room which was still closed then he called her name and she came out do you want me asked she i hope you the young op cape ann are ready to tell me what you are going to with me i am ready your father is a very rich man i suppose replied dock suppose he is added he is worth two or three hundred thousand dollars most likely i m sure i don t know well i know he is continued dock for a man as much money he is the meanest man i know of my exclaimed surprised and indignant he gave me a hundred dollar bill for saving his life that was mean i am sure he will give you more if you are not satisfied my father gives away ever so much money every year he doesn t give it then said dock with a sneer he ought to have given me at least ten thousand dollars after i pulled him out of the water what good would his money have done him if i hadn t saved his life the flag or � my father did not think he was in any danger himself he told me so that day in the train that s neither here nor there he didn t pony up like a man and i m going to him now i suppose he won t think twenty thousand dollars is a big price to pay for you for me i i don t know what you mean answered the bewildered read this letter then said dock throwing the sheet to her did read it it was a letter to her father filled with bad and horrible gi it informed mr that his daughter was on board of the off the coast of and could only be returned to her parents when he had paid the writer twenty thousand dollars for himself and two thousand for his men dock went on to say that he did not intend to fall into any trap set to catch him if he was arrested his men would sink the vessel with in the cabin in the deepest water they could find the then detailed the method by which the money the young op cape ann could be paid over to him without the life of his daughter mr was directed to the amount demanded in an envelope addressed to captain me and put it in the post office if the reached the writer on should be sent to the principal hotel in on sat the letter concluded with this ominous threat if you attempt to play foul or to have me arrested you will never see your daughter again in this world but would you sink me in the vessel mr dock asked certainly i would if your father don t care enough about you to give what i ask you ain t of much consequence that s all my father will give you the money i know he will said trembling with terror at the awful threat of the evil man i should say that he would but to help the thing along i want you to write a few lines at the end of the letter you can advise him to the flag or take up with my offer send the money and not mention the matter to any i will mr dock you don t think treated you bad since you came aboard � do you � no mr dock � it wouldn t do any harm to say as much it might make your father feel better about it wrote half a page at the end of dock s letter appealing to her father to accept the offer she added that dock except carrying her off had treated her very well the letter was sealed and directed to mr at about the middle of the afternoon the having been favored with a fresh and steady breeze put into the harbor of in dock went ashore and put his letter in the post office on his return the vessel filled away again and after running across bay came to anchor in a lonely at deer isle the anchor had hardly into the rocks at the bottom of the little bay before dock s at the young of cape ann was attracted by a sail headed towards him it seems to me seen that boat before said the evil man as the sail approached i reckon you have as sure as you live it s the flag replied flag ob chapter xx thb op the flag perhaps sober staid steady and especially prudent non persons would have believed that field was crazy when he sailed out in the night and the darkness into the solemn of the great ocean cutting loose from the land as though the salt water was his native element it must be acknowledged that it was a bold and even reckless venture but it was not a hopeless one it was not one in which a skilful and daring fellow might not reasonably expect if not a perfect success at least enough to justify the hazard under such desperate circumstances as those under which the young commenced his voyage did a great deal of thinking 