The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1917-09-11

O~S~CA4 LII L hGl0 ICGGlNGO luEIQGE IN
formation 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. suggested
that he make accommodating trip
ashore, as had been intended, but with
different purpose. He might find
traces of people having been there. He
followed my advice, but the keenest
eye in the party could discover no indi-
cations Of human beings For my
part, / believed "the nameless" had
been taken possession of by shore des-
peradoes; that they had been In hiding
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 muffled oars;
then they had lighted the fires and
steamed away. There was nothing
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 l would adopt any
course he wished, 1t was determined
that we get up the anchor Immediately
and go out to the open sea with view
to discovering If "the nameless" was
In sight. This we did, running direct
ly southeast In direct line from the
coast. but notwithstanding that we had
a clean sweep either way and excellent
glasses we saw nothing Of her. l be-
heved she had got too much start, but
nearly all Of my crew by this time con-
sidered her 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 well,
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 explained.
A case In litigation was before the
courts which involved English people
In high life and the inheritance Of one
of the most beautiful Of the old castles
Of England. Many people were called
as witnesses, and Mrs. Wingate was
to have been one Of these. This latter
fact was unknown to her husband. In
order to get her out of the way she
had been kidnapped and kept at sea In
yacht.
The lady's kidnapeF while on the New
England coast saw by New York so
cial paper that her husband had en-
barked on cruise with me. AS soon
as my yacht appeared his sailing mas
ter recognized her. At the time leak
In the boilers was being repaired, and
there was no heat in the flrebox, 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 name
on the stern.
An idea occurred to him. There was
at the time no one on board but himself
an engineer and his captive. He drug
ged the captive, carried her into the
1rebox 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 any
one looking straight into the box, es-
pecially as there was very little light
there. They all stayed in tbs con-
cealment until we left the yacht and
returned there when we put our watch
aboard. During the night they sur
prised, gagged and tied him; thnn, hav-
ing cut the cable, the two me- got In
the dinghy and with muffied oars pull
ed out Of hearing. To get up steam and
speed away was the next move. The
Acadia, being one Of the fastest Eng
fish yachts. was soon at a safe dist rnce.