Looking about them, and making sure their airship was well fastened so that it would not drift away, the boys and the professor started below. They were wondering what they would find. But even in their wildest imaginings they did not dream of finding what confronted them a moment later.
For, as they started to descend, they heard a noise from below, and up a companionway came a voice calling:
“Who’s there? What do you want? I’m in command here, and I’m going to salvage this craft. Avast and belay! Who are you, anyhow, boarding me on the high seas? Who are you?”
The boys started back, and a moment later there jumped into view a grizzled sailor—who had been in sole possession of the wrecked ship. He held a boiler slicing bar in his hand, and he glared, rather than looked, a welcome at our friends.
“What do you want here?” growled the lone sailor.
[CHAPTER XI]
A QUEER STORY
For a moment the boys did not know what to do—or what to say. Jerry confessed, afterward, that he feared the lone sailor might be a lunatic—made mad by his sufferings in the storm and wreck—and the tall lad reasoned that it would hardly be safe even to parley with him. Ned and Bob also admitted they felt much the same way. As for Professor Snodgrass, no sooner had he come aboard, than he saw a new kind of bug, and so intent was he on its capture that he paid no further attention to the boys or the sailor, either.
“Well, what do you want?” again growled the latter, advancing in what seemed a menacing way toward our friends. “Are you trying to get in ahead of me?”