"What are your names?" asked the old man.
The lads introduced themselves.
"Glad to meet you," returned Captain Royal. "It ain't often I have visitors. I get used to being alone."
"It's lonely enough here," agreed Frank.
"It isn't bad. Not half as lonely as the time I got marooned in the South Seas."
The boys looked at him with new interest.
"You were marooned?"
"Aye. It was when I was in charge of a destroyer cruising the South Seas a good many years ago. We landed for water on a little island that you won't find on any of the maps. It was a hot day—very hot. Must have been over a hundred degrees in the shade. So while my men were loading the water on my boat I sat down in the shade of a cactus tree. Before I knew it, I was asleep."
"And they went away and left you?"
"They did."