"I'll tell you all about it," promised the young millionaire, "but first let me know whom you have locked up as prisoners? Are they a regular band of pirates?"
"They're the same fellows who, under the misdirected ideas of your Uncle Ezra, tried once before to kidnap you," said the captain. "Locked up in the brig are Sam Newton and Ike Murdock, and with them are two young acquaintances of yours—Guy Fletcher and Simon Scardale!"
"Well, wouldn't that jar you!" exclaimed Dick, weakly. "I never suspected they had my yacht. And Uncle Ezra, too! Well, it's been a series of wonders all the way along! But is the yacht damaged?"
"Not a bit, only those fellows didn't know how to sail her. Ike and Sam brought some of their crew aboard, and I've got them in irons, too, though they aren't really to blame, as they only did what they were hired to do. Now for explanations."
They were soon briefly told. Beginning from the time when he cast anchor in the little bay, off Stone Island, and Dick and his chums went ashore in the launch, Captain Barton told of the capture of his vessel. He and his crew suspected nothing when they saw the yacht's launch approaching, and it was not until Newton and Murdock, in company with a number of lusty and savage men, had gained the deck, and attacked Captain Barton and his crew, that any hint of foul play was suspected. Taken unawares, the commander of the Albatross and his men could do little. They were locked up below, and what happened after that they learned from time to time.
The launch was hoisted aboard by the kidnappers, and the anchor gotten up. Then out from a small bay, where she had been hidden, came the steamer Princess, containing, among others, Uncle Ezra, Guy and Simon. With a couple of men left aboard her to steer, the others of the rascally crew, whom Mr. Larabee had hired, took up their quarters on Dick's yacht, which was soon towing the Princess.
It seems that after Newton and Murdock had made the blunder, and captured the Cuban youth instead of Dick, they evolved a plan to redeem their mistake. They learned, by skilfully questioning the youth, that Alantrez was not his real name, and, forcing him to tell his true one, and knowing something of the quest of the young millionaire, they figured out that the Cuban was the relative whom Dick was seeking.
They planned to leave young Valdez on Stone Island, with enough food for a long stay, and then the kidnappers sailed away, touching at a small seaport to send the letter which the Cuban lad's father received.