“‘Hullo!’ he hailed in a foreign accent.
“‘What ship’s that?’ hailed Captain Munson again.
“‘None of your business. Heave to. I want to board you,’ was the reply in an insolent voice.
“‘You go plumb to blazes!’ came from Sterling, who was a hot-tempered chap and could contain himself no longer.
“At that very instant a puff of wind blew the man’s black beard aside. He clutched at it desperately, but somehow he bungled the job, and to my utter astonishment—it came off! He stood revealed as a man of huge frame with a brutal bull-dog jaw and unmistakable Latin cast of features. But I had little time to notice this, for a strange cry had broken from Captain Munson’s lips as the man’s disguise blew off. He turned deathly pale and staggered like a drunken man.
“Sterling and I rushed to his side. We thought for a minute that he was about to faint. But he rallied and stared at us for a moment wildly.
“‘Good Lord!’ exclaimed Sterling, ‘it’s all come back to him!’
“Then I understood. That man who had hailed us was the captain of the same piratical band that had attacked Captain Munson’s other ship and carried off his wife and child. The next instant following Sterling’s exclamation was a dramatic one.
“‘You know me, sir?’ asked the mate.
“‘Yes! Yes! You’re Robert Sterling,’ burst from the captain’s lips. ‘I recall it all now. The fight! That ruffian struck me down. I woke up to find you all gone. But, Sterling, how do you come to be here,—and—and where are Bess and the baby?’