The launch was hoisted aboard by the kidnappers, and the anchor gotten up. Then out from a small bay, where she had been hidden, came the steamer Princess, containing, among others, Uncle Ezra, Guy and Simon. With a couple of men left aboard her to steer, the others of the rascally crew, whom Mr. Larabee had hired, took up their quarters on Dick's yacht, which was soon towing the Princess.
It seems that after Newton and Murdock had made the blunder, and captured the Cuban youth instead of Dick, they evolved a plan to redeem their mistake. They learned, by skilfully questioning the youth, that Alantrez was not his real name, and, forcing him to tell his true one, and knowing something of the quest of the young millionaire, they figured out that the Cuban was the relative whom Dick was seeking.
They planned to leave young Valdez on Stone Island, with enough food for a long stay, and then the kidnappers sailed away, touching at a small seaport to send the letter which the Cuban lad's father received.
Newton and Murdock, who were shrewd scoundrels, figured that when the parent of the kidnapped boy learned that he was gone, he would reveal his true name, and that Dick would thus discover his relative. The kidnappers also thought that nothing would be more natural than that the young millionaire would offer the use of his yacht to aid his mother's relative recover his son.
