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Transcriber's Note:

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  [Illustration: "'STOP!'"]




     THE

     KIDNAPPED PRESIDENT

     BY

     GUY BOOTHBY

     AUTHOR OF

     'DR. NIKOLA,' 'A BID FOR FORTUNE,' 'THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE DEVIL,'
     ETC.

     ILLUSTRATIONS BY STANLEY L. WOOD

     _LONDON_

     WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED

     NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE

     1902




'THE KIDNAPPED PRESIDENT'




CHAPTER I


I suppose to every man, at some period in his life, there comes some
adventure upon which, in after life, he is destined to look back with
a feeling that is very near akin to astonishment. Somebody has said
that adventures are to the adventurous. In my case I must confess that
I do not see how the remark applies. I was certainly fourteen years at
sea, but in all that time, beyond having once fallen overboard in
Table Bay, and, of course, the great business of which it is the
purpose of this book to tell you, I cannot remember any circumstance
that I could dignify with the title of an adventure. The sailor's
calling in these times of giant steam