“I was off the Gullwing,” I whispered. “But I guess this is no dream? I am aboard again now.”
“No you’re not!” he declared, but he still seemed bewildered.
“This isn’t the Gullwing?”
“It’s the Seamew,” he said.
“But—but—you’re Mr. Barney?”
“I am,” he said, grimly. “But not the Mr. Barney you know, young man.”
Then the mystery broke and I understood. It was Mr. Alf Barney I was talking to, the second mate of the Seamew.
“Then—then you picked me up,” I murmured.
“And we had an idea that you were a merman,” he said, with a quick laugh. “Out here in the ocean without a stitch of clothing on you.”
I told him how I had got rid of my garments after falling overboard from the other ship. The men below gathered around to listen. They were men of about the same class as manned the Gullwing, I saw.