The door swung slowly inward, and who should be standing there looking straight at Tommy but his old friend the ex-Pirate! It was the same old ex-Pirate of days and days ago, with his fierce mustaches and long hair, and his big pistols sticking out of his sash. He looked at Tommy for a moment, just as if he wanted to make sure that he was calling on the right little boy, and then a pleasant smile spread all over his face, and he walked rapidly across the room. Tommy jumped from the window-seat and hastened to meet him.
"Why, I'm awfully glad to see you!" he exclaimed. "How do you do, Mr. ex-Pirate? And how did you get up here?"
The ex-Pirate laughed, and shook hands with Tommy, and then he said: "Oh, I just came. Things come and go, you know; and I just came. Wasn't it nice?"
"Awfully nice," said Tommy, enthusiastically. "I've been thinking a lot about you. I was beginning to think you were not real."
"Oh yes, I'm real," asserted the ex-Pirate. "Just as real as you are."
"Perhaps I'm not real," suggested Tommy; and then, becoming alarmed at the thought, he felt in his pockets, and pulled at his hair to see if he was all there. Reassured on that point he added, "Where is the Sheep?"
"I guess he's running yet," answered the ex-Pirate, laughing. "Poor fellow; I left him 'way behind. But I never saw anybody run like you in all my life. You ran faster than Time, and Time runs pretty fast now, I tell you! He can go pretty near as fast as Money—and you know how fast Money goes."
Tommy did not know how fast money went, because he had never seen very much of it, but he thought that, from the nature of his past business, the ex-Pirate must have had wide experience in those matters. So he said, "I suppose so."
"That's right," continued the ex-Pirate. "That's perfectly right. But I ran as fast as I could, and I've only just arrived."
"You must be tired," remarked the little boy.