Farrongate, or rather John Scoble, which was his real name, was a deserter
from the British army. He was arrested on his return, and compelled to
serve out the remainder of his term of service. The death of an uncle in
India recruited his finances, and he returned to New York. It afterwards
appeared that he had some clew to Peter Belgrave's missing million, and he
was therefore anxious to recover the possession of the wife who had
repudiated him.

A successful conspiracy enabled him to convey her to Bermuda. At this stage
of the drama, Captain Royal Ringgold, an early admirer of the pretty widow,
became an active participant in the proceedings, and from that time he had
been the director of all the steps taken to recover Louis's mother.

In the interim of Scoble's absence, Louis, assisted by his schoolfellow and
devoted friend, Felix McGavonty, had accomplished what his father had
failed to achieve in ten years of incessant search: he had found the
missing million of his grandfather, and had become a millionaire at
sixteen. The young man fancied that yachting would suit him; and he
proposed to Squire Moses Scarburn, the trustee of all his property, to
purchase a cheap vessel for his use.

The spiriting away of his mother gave a new importance to the nautical
fancy of the young man. Captain Ringgold condemned the plan to buy a cheap
vessel. He had made a part of his ample fortune as a shipmaster, and had
been an officer in the navy during the last half of the War of the
Rebellion. He advised the young man's mother, who was also his guardian,
and the trustee to buy a good-sized steam-yacht.

A New York millionaire had just completed one of the most magnificent