Aft by the helmsman stood a long, thin man with a scraggy beard, and so near was the flying schooner that the movement of his jaws could be seen as he chewed steadily.
Suddenly he bent forward, and shading his eyes with one hand, gazed fixedly at the castaways.
"It's Dago Charlie!" gasped Loyola, with a horror in her eyes.
"By God, he's seen us!" yelled the bosun's mate wildly.
Sure enough the man began brandishing his arms in furious gesticulations, and a deep roar reached the whaleboat from the combined lungs of the stranger's crew.
"Bah! You swabs! We don't care that for you!" roared Bill Benson savagely, standing up and snapping his fingers.
"Thar's squaws among 'em," exclaimed Broncho with surprise.
"Island girls," muttered Jack.
The schooner had hardly got a quarter of a mile to leeward when she put her helm down and hove-to with a tarpaulin in the rigging.
"Goin' to lie by us till it moderates," said Bill. "Now he's spotted us he won't let us go if 'e can 'elp it. 'E knows it's the gallows for 'im if we gets clear, and 'e'll stand by to pounce on us. 'E'll get what he ain't lookin' for if 'e comes protrudin' here."