“If we can only get her, she may have food and water in,” suggested Joe. “I’m going to swim for it, and tow it in. I see a rope trailing from the bow.”
Before they could object he had leaped off the derelict and was swimming toward the boat as it rose and fell on the wash of the sea. Joe was strong, and a good swimmer, and soon he was aboard again with the end of the line. By it they hauled in the boat.
“Anything in it?” asked Abe.
“I didn’t stop to look. Just grabbed the line and turned back.”
Now the boat was alongside. Tom looked into it and uttered a cry of surprise. It contained one passenger—a man, and it was the same mysterious man who had kept himself hidden in his stateroom aboard the Silver Star.
[CHAPTER XII]
A MUTUAL SURPRISE
“Davy Jones!” gasped Joe Weldon, as he too looked into the boat he had towed to the derelict, and saw the man. “Another passenger!”
“And a dead one, too, I reckon,” added Abe, grimly.