"A new hand I hired at the last minute. He's a good navigator, better than Jepson, and that's why I took him on. But he isn't here, and so we'll go without him."
"Not short-handed, are you?" asked the manager, rather anxiously.
"No, not for this voyage. I think——"
But the captain was interrupted by a shout up the wharf. A man, seemingly a sailor, came running toward the schooner.
"There he is now!" the captain exclaimed. "All aboard. Hurry up, my man, or you'll be left."
The man flung himself on the gangplank which was separated from the dock by some little distance. He scrambled aboard, and just then, Alice, standing near Jack Jepson, heard the old sailor utter an exclamation of surprise, and murmur:
"Can that be him? Can that be him—after these years? No, it can't be!"
"All aboard!" cried Captain Brisco. And the Mary Ellen, in charge of a fussy little tug, began moving away from the dock.