Page:Dick Hamilton's Steam Yacht.djvu/240

222 said the young Cuban. "I meant to last night, for I think you are much concerned in it."

"I am concerned in it?"

"Yes."

"How is that?" asked Dick, wonderingly.

"Because I was kidnapped by a man named Ezra Larabee, and the men he hired to take me away thought they were taking a certain Dick Hamilton."

"My Uncle Ezra here? He wanted to kidnap me? They took you for me?" gasped Dick, wondering whether he had heard aright.

"Yes. You and I strongly resemble each other," went on the Spanish youth.

"I know that," assented Dick, "but—my uncle here—trying to kidnap me? It seems incredible. What vessel did he have?"

"The Princess."

"Ha! Then it was the same one on which they tried to decoy me while in New York. I begin to see through some things," cried Dick. "Those men—the two who attacked me—they were kidnappers instead of thieves, as I thought. But I never suspected Uncle Ezra, though he did bitterly oppose me in this yachting business. But what can be his object? Is he crazy?"

"He is possessed with an idea that you must be prevented from wasting your money," answered Pedro. "I gathered that much while a captive on the Princess. He wants to kidnap you for your own good, he says."