seated on the bench, though at some distance away, for the studio was
large.

"But that can't be all of it," said Alice, at length.

"All of what, Miss?" Jack Jepson asked.

"The mystery."

"That's all there is to any mystery, Miss," he said. "A mystery is a
mystery, an' if it isn't solved, it's a mystery still, an' nobody can
make any more of it. Th' captain and Mike Tullane completely
disappeared, an' were never heard of afterward. That's th' mystery, an'
all there is to it, jest as I told you."

"But about yourself?" asked Ruth. "You said you were put in chains,
under arrest, as the ringleader of the mutiny."

"So I was."

"But what became of you?"

"Well, I escaped, Miss. It may not be a very nice thing to confess, but
I escaped. Th' British ship took us to a jail on some island--I forget
th' name of it. Anyhow I was locked up, an' so were a lot of th' others.
We were tried, an' I was accused of startin' th' mutiny. Some of th'
worst men on th' ship put th' blame on me, an' I wasn't a bit guilty.
But it was no use in denyin' it. They was all banded together t' accuse
me t' save themselves. I was found guilty, though I wasn't at all, an' I
was sentenced to a long imprisonment. I just escaped hanging by a hair,