"Well, Mr. Taylor, what can we do for you?" demanded Gerald.
"Hush, sir, not so loud, I pray of you," replied the little man, anxiously, his closely cut greyish hair bristling in his excitement. "My name is Schneider, not Taylor.
[Illustration: "Look here, Mr. Schneider, you've come to the wrong box with your sneaking complaints. So clear out!">[
"I am a professor of languages and sciences. You came from Poole, is it not? Zen perhaps you are acquainted with Colonel Mortebeque? I was at one time tutor to his son——"
"Look here, Mr. Schneider," broke in Tregarthen, impatiently. "I don't know Colonel What's-his-name, nor do I want to hear your personal history. Come to the point—what do you want with us?"
"Alas!" groaned the professor with a shudder and a curious grimace. "I have been trapped; brought on ze voyage under false representations. It was to be scientist zat I was brought, but ze Captain Brookes he would me make fill ze shells in ze laboratories. I like it not. He is pirate."
"Who says he is a pirate?" asked Gerald sternly.
"Me, I will not say it. But zen, he is a—a what you call it. Ah! I know—a wizard. You two are also in peril. Will you ask ze captain to let you go on land at ze first port we touch, and take me wit you? Zen we run away and be safe."