close by, in Japanese fashion, for the foreign agent was sitting back
on his own crossed heels.

"Feel wholly comfortable?" mockingly inquired the foreign agent, when
he saw the boy's eyes open.

"Not especially, thank you," mumbled the boy, dryly.

Jack had discovered, by this time, that he was lying on a wooden floor,
very likely in the basement of the house. The room contained no
furniture, beyond an old table. Daylight was excluded by wooden
shutters fastened into place over the windows. On the table a single
candle burned in a candlestick.

"Why didn't you bring along with you, Benson," sneered the long fellow,
"the property of mine that you stole from me?"

It was plain, then, that the foreign agent remembered the submarine boy
well.

"Why are you playing this fool trick on me?" counter-questioned Captain
Jack. "You knew I didn't have the--the things with me. You could see
that."

"I put you to this inconvenience," replied the foreign agent, "because
I wanted to know a few things. In the first place, why are you bothering
with me, or with my plans?"

Jack remained silent.