There was a reticence, a hesitancy in his tones that irritated Jack, overwrought as he already was.
“I asked you a question, Ned,” he said in sharp tones, very unlike his usual affable ones, “where is my father?”
“I saw him last near Yucatan,” burst forth Ned miserably.
The reply was so utterly unexpected that it fairly took Jack and Tom off their feet. Ned had not seen fit to supplement his statement, but stood there with that same shamefaced expression playing over his visage.
“And you—you left him behind there?” broke out Jack, guessing part of the truth.
“We couldn’t help it,” wailed Ned wretchedly. “Wait till I tell you about it.”
Jack’s head swam. Behind the vague words he sensed a tragedy of some sort in that mysterious country which had already, so it was thought, claimed the life of Tom’s father, Mr. Jesson.
“How did the Sea King come to be off Yucatan?” inquired Jack, “her course, as laid out, was far to the east of that country.”
“I know that,” replied Ned; “but a gale blew us off our reckonings, and into as strange and terrible a series of adventures as you ever heard of in the wildest fiction.”
“Tell us about it,” demanded Tom crisply, cutting short Ned’s rather hysterical outburst. “Come below, into the cabin. It is important that we should know everything as soon as possible.”