TAKEN BY THE ENEMY




CHAPTER I

ASTOUNDING NEWS FROM THE SHORE


"This is most astounding news!" exclaimed Captain Horatio Passford.

It was on the deck of the magnificent steam-yacht Bellevite, of which he
was the owner; and with the newspaper, in which he had read only a few
of the many head-lines, still in his hand, he rushed furiously across
the deck, in a state of the most intense agitation.

It would take more than one figure to indicate the number of millions by
which his vast wealth was measured, in the estimation of those who knew
most about his affairs; and he was just returning from a winter cruise
in his yacht.

His wife and son were on board; but his daughter had spent the winter at
the South with her uncle, preferring this to a voyage at sea, being in
rather delicate health, and the doctors thought a quiet residence in a
genial climate was better for her.

The Bellevite had been among the islands of the Atlantic, visiting the
Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, and was now coming from Bermuda.