"I am confident," said he, "that your father is not a confirmed lunatic. He may be restored to his reason, if care be taken. I have seen worse cases than this cured."
So excited were Harry and his friends over the discovery they had made, that, although the singular emotion of Brand had not escaped their attention, yet they had not noticed his being unconscious.
Now, however, Turk perceived it.
"A strange affair, this," said he; "had old Nick himself come to claim the captain, he couldn't have acted queerer than he has at the sight of Mr. Manton!"
In a few minutes, the captain recovered, staring wildly around him, until his eye was caught by the spectacle of the old man astern, when he started back with an affrighted cry.
"It is real flesh and blood, then," he exclaimed.
"Why, of course, Cap," answered Turk, "you don't suppose, I hope, that we'd take a ghost passenger!"
"Real flesh and blood," continued Brand, an expression of relief passing over his face, as he noticed the vacant stare of Mr. Manton, showing that the latter did not recognize him. "I am glad of it—ay, very glad. So he was not lost overboard, after all!"
"It seems not!" said Turk; "but I shouldn't have thought the discovery would have set you off into a faintin' fit?"