"Ah!" she exclaimed sadly, her face pale and haggard.
"I have heard that the vessel was scuttled somewhere in the Baltic."
"That is true. Oberg's purpose having been served, he demanded half the
property on board, or he would give notice to the Russian naval
authorities that the pirate yacht was afloat. He attempted to blackmail
my father, as he had already done so many times, but his scheme was
frustrated. My father, because of his inhuman treatment of poor Elma,
defied him, when it appears that Oberg, who was in Helsingfors,
telegraphed to the admiral of the Russian fleet in the Baltic. The crew
from the _Iris_ were at once landed at Riga, and only Mackintosh and my
father put to sea again. Ah! my father was desperate, for he knew the
merciless character of that man whose victim he had been for so long.
They watched a Russian cruiser bearing down upon them, when, just as it
drew near, they got off in a boat and blew up the yacht, which sank in
three minutes with its ill-obtained wealth on board.
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