“I must ask you whether you have yet received your winter supply of food.”

“Oh, yes,” said the senior officer, “we had that nearly a month ago.”

“Is it stored in the military portion of the rock, or below here?”

“Our rations are packed away in a room upstairs.”

“I am sorry, gentlemen, that I must put you into cells until my mission is accomplished.  If you will write a requisition for such rations as you are accustomed to receive, I shall see that you are supplied.  Meanwhile, write also an order to whomsoever you entrust in command of the men during your absence, to grant no one leave to come downstairs, and ask him to take care that each soldier is rigidly restricted to the minimum quantity of vodka.”

The senior officer sat down at the table, and wrote the two orders.  The men were then placed in adjoining cells, without the thought of resistance even occurring to them.  They supposed there had been some changes at headquarters, and were rather relieved to have the assurance of the Prince that their arrest would prove temporary.  Further investigation showed that there would be no danger of starvation for six months at least.

Next day Jack, at great risk of his neck, scaled to the apex of the island, as he had thought of flying, if possible, a signal of distress that might attract some passing vessel.  But even though he reached the sharp ridge, he saw at once that no pole could be erected there, not even if he possessed one.  The wind aloft was terrific, and he gazed around him at an empty sea.

When four days had passed they began to look for the Russian relief boat, which they knew would set out the moment the Governor’s telegram reached St. Petersburg.

On the fifth day Jack shouted down to Drummond, who was standing by the door.

“The Russian is coming:  heading direct for us.  She’s in a hurry, too, crowding on all steam, and eating up the distance like a torpedo-boat destroyer.  I think it’s a cruiser.  It’s not the old tub I came on, anyway.”

“Come down, then,” answered Alan, “and we—­”

A cry from above interrupted him.  Jack, having at first glance spied the vessel whose description he had shouted to Drummond, had now turned his eyes eastward and stood staring aghast toward the sunrise.

“What’s the matter?” asked Alan.

“Matter?” echoed Jack.  “They must be sending the whole Russian Navy here in detachments to capture our unworthy selves.  There’s a second boat coming from the east—­ nearer by two miles than the yacht.  If I hadn’t been all taken up with the other from the moment I climbed here I’d have seen her before.”

“Is she a yacht, too?”

“No.  Looks like a passenger tramp.  Dirty and—­”

“Merchantman, maybe.”

“No.  She’s got guns on her—­”

“Merchantman fitted out for privateersman, probably.  That’s the sort of craft Russia would be likeliest to send to a secret prison like this.  What flag does—­”