“‘Mr. Kane, I am Captain Sparkle. When your guests come on deck, I will thank you to present me to them.’”
CHAPTER II.
THE MYSTERY OF THE PIRATE CRAFT.
“Let me talk, now!” exclaimed Bessie. “I was the first one to reach the deck after you called us, Max.”
“All right. I’ve no objections. I feel like seven different kinds of a jay, anyhow, when I tell this story; and, by the great boot in Chatham Street, Nick, I’d willingly give up a million rather than go through with it again! All the same, I want those race cups back again, if I can get them.”
“So the pirate took them, did he? I thought he said it might be arranged so that you could keep them?”
“Oh, he took them, all right; and he did offer to make an arrangement; but I will tell you all about that when Bessie gets through.”
Nick turned so that he faced Miss Harlan.
“I was the first one to reach the deck,” she began, “and I saw a distinguished-looking man seated in that chair where the count is sitting. He wore a red mask over his face, as Max has described it, and his costume was strikingly like a Romeo get-up, only it was red. My first thought was that some of Max’s friends had discovered that we were at the anchorage, and had come aboard to treat us to an impromptu fancy-dress party. I really supposed that I would have known them, had they not been masked, and regarded the whole thing as a joke, so I went toward them, humming ‘Gaily the Troubadour.’ But when I drew nearer, so that I could get a view of Max’s face, I was startled; he looked so savage, and he was chewing away at his mustache, just as if he had not spent hours and hours in training it ever since it sprouted.”