The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1917-09-28

But overnight something occurred to
render this inadvisable. We set light
on "the nameless'' and left one man
to watch on our own vessel, which was
all that was necessary since we were
at anchor In a small bay In good
weather. One man watched till eight
bells, midnight, when another man took
his place. Wingate wished me to put
a man on 1.-The nameless," and did.
| At two bells In the morning Win
gate, who had slept little during the
night, looked out of the portfolio in his
stateroom for the yacht Not seeing
her and supposing that he was not on
the right side to see her, he got up and
went ON deck. "The nameless" was
nowhere to be seen. He came to my
room to announce the fact. I asked
him what the watch reported about the
disappearance, and he said that he had
found the man sound asleep.
Putting on a 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. / asked
If 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, superstitiohs men-sailors of
low rating-who were paralyzed with
terror. They rushed without orders to
pull up the anchor, but stopped them,
though l feared they were going to
brain me with capstan bars they had
taken up. didn't propose to take any
action till had received further 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. I 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 keenest
eye In the party could discover no indi-
cations of human beings. For my
part, l 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 lowed the yacht
out of our hearing with mufiled oars;
then they had lighted the fires and
steamed away. There was nothing
against this theory except the fact Of
Wingates having found one of his
wifes 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 l told that would adopt any
course he wished, 1t was determined
that we get up the anchor Immediately
and go out to the open sea with a view
to discovering II "the nameless" was
in sight. This we did, running direct
ly southeast In a direct line from the
coast, but notwithstanding that we had
a clean sweep either way and excellent
glasses we saw nothing Of her. be-
lieved 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"s
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
q yacht.
The lady's kidnaper 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 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 name
on the stern.
An idea occurred to him. There was
at the time no one on board but himself