The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1910-09-30

the next day he might take three of
the crew, go ashore and spend twelve
hours In looking for the deserters of
the yacht.
But overnight something occurred
to render this inadvisable. We set
| light on 1.-The nameless" and left one
man to watch on our own vessel.
which was all that was necessary since
we were at anchor In small bay in
good weather. One man watched till
eight bells. midnight. when another
man tookShis place. Wingate wished
me to put man on 1.-The nameless."
and did.
At two bells in the morning Wingate.
who had slept little during the night.
looked out of the portfolio in his state
room for the yacht. Not seeing her
and suppostng that he was not on the
right side to see her, he got up and
went on deck. 1.-The nameless' was
nowhere to be seen. He came to my
room to announce the fact. l asked
him what the watch reported about
the disappearance. and he said that
Putting on bath robe, ! went on
deck. The first watch said that "the
nameless" was In position when he
was relieved. so she must have pulled
out during the second watch. I asked
II anything was known Of the man
who had been stationed on her. but
was told that he had neither been
heard of nor seen since he had been
put aboard. He had disappeared with
the mysterious vessel.
Among my crew there were several
ignorant. superstitious men-sailors of
low rating-who were paralyzed with
terror. They rushed without orders to
pull up the anchor. but stopped them.
though i feared they were going to
brain me with capstain bars they
had taken up. didn't propose to take
any action till l had received further
information and had consulted with
my guest. Alec Wingate. One of my
men said that during the night he
thought he heard the sound of oars.
Wingate was very much agitated
over this part Of the mystery. Indeed,
he seemed more disturbed at the dis
appearance than he had been at the
discovery of the yacht. l suggested
that he make accommodating trip
ashore. as had been intended. but with
a different purpose He might find
traces of people having been there.
He followed my advice. but the keen
est eve in the party could discover no
indications of human beings. For my
part l believed 1.-THE nameless" had
been taken possession of by shore des-
peradoes: that they had been in hid
ing somewhere near by: had gone
aboard In the night, surprised the man
on watch. killed him and towed the
yacht out of our hearing with muf1led
oars; then they had lighted the fires
and steamed away. There was moth
ing against this theory except the fact
of Wingate's having found one Of his
wife's dresses aboard. But took no
stock in this. for Wingate had suffered
so much at her loss that probably his
mind had become afflicted and he had
himself created the remembrance Of
this dress.
After consultation with Wingate.
whom / told that would adopt any
course he wished. 1t was determined
that we get up the anchor immediate
view to discovering If "the nameless'
was in sight. This we did. running
directly southeast in a direct line from
the coast. but Notwithstanding that
we had clean sweep either way and
excellent glasses we saw nothing of
her. believed she had got too much
start. but nearly all of my crew by
this time considered her a phantom.
Nor did we afterward hear anything
of her. though we spoke every vessel
we met. asking If she had seen her.
One vessel described her pretty we'll,
but the yacht observed was the Acadia,
with the name painted on her stern.
We completed our voyage without any
other information.
But the mystery of the nameless"
was destined to be solved. During the
winter Wingate got wind of his wife's
being in Montreal. He went there and
found her.
Though the story of her disappear
ance was never made entirely clear to
me, the mystery Of the nameless yacht
was. TO keep Mrs. Wingate from tes-
tifying in litigation where British peo-
pie in high life were concerned she had
been kidnapped and kept at sea In
yacht Her kidnaper while on the New
England coast saw by New York So
cial paper that her husband had en-
barked on a cruise with me. As soon
as my yacht appeared his sailing mas
ter recognized her. At the time a leak
In the boilers was being repaired. and
there was no heat in the firebox, so
the yacht could not steam away.
The kidnaper. supposing Wingate
knew that his wife was on the Acadia
and that he was on her track. ordered
a paint brush to be run over her paint
ing.
An idea occurred to him. There was
at the time no one aboard but himself.
an engineer and his captive. He drug
ged the captive. carried her into the
frebox and got In there with her. The
engineer got In also. and the party. two
on one side Of the door and one on the
other, were hidden from view of apy