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If the Count's avarice could be
appeased the unhappy child might expect to find herself, with as little
delay as possible, an inmate of the floating harem on board the
FLUTTERBY.
No visitor was safe from her lively tongue, and alas, certain little
details, insignificant in themselves, gave ground for the ungenerous
hypothesis that van Koppen, like all the rest of them, had a cloven
hoof. There was the usual "dark side" to this otherwise charming and
profitable stranger, the usual mystery, the usual fly in the ointment.
In the first place it was a singular fact, much commented on, that
nobody had ever been invited on board the yacht. That alone was
suspicious. IF YOU WANT TO GET ANYTHING OUT OF OLD KOPPEN--so ran a
local saying--DON'T PROPOSE A VISIT TO THE FLUTTERBY. More curious still
was the circumstance that nobody, save the owner and certain bearded
venerables of the crew, had ever been known to land on the island. How
about the other passengers? Who were they? The millionaire never so
much as mentioned their existence.


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