swoon. Then remembering what had befallen him, and his head
beating as though it would split asunder, he shut his eyes again,

contriving with great effort to keep himself from groaning aloud,
and wondering as to what sort of pirates these could be who would

first knock a man in the head so terrible a blow as that which he
had suffered, and then take such care to fetch him back to life

again, and to make him easy and comfortable.
Nor did he open his eyes again, but lay there gathering his wits

together and wondering thus until the bandage was properly tied
about his head and sewed together. Then once more he opened his

eyes, and looked up to ask where he was.
Either they who were attending to him did not choose to reply, or

else they could not speak English, for they made no answer,
excepting by signs; for the white man, seeing that he was now

able to speak, and so was come back into his senses again, nodded
his head three or four times, and smiled with a grin of his white

teeth, and then pointed, as though toward a saloon beyond. At the
same time the negro held up our hero's coat and beckoned for him

to put it on, so that Barnaby, seeing that it was required of him
to meet some one without, arose, though with a good deal of

effort, and permitted the negro to help him on with his coat,
still feeling mightily dizzy and uncertain upon his legs, his

head beating fit to split, and the vessel rolling and pitching at
a great rate, as though upon a heavy ground swell.

So, still sick and dizzy, he went out into what was indeed a fine
saloon beyond, painted in white and gilt like the cabin he had

just quitted, and fitted in the nicest fashion, a mahogany table,
polished very bright, extending the length of the room, and a

quantity of bottles, together with glasses of clear crystal,
arranged in a hanging rack above.

Here at the table a man was sitting with his back to our hero,
clad in a rough pea-jacket, and with a red handkerchief tied

around his throat, his feet stretched out before him, and he
smoking a pipe of tobacco with all the ease and comfort in the

world.
As Barnaby came in he turned round, and, to the profound

astonishment of our hero, presented toward him in the light of
the lantern, the dawn shining pretty strong through the skylight,

the face of that very man who had conducted the mysterious
expedition that night across Kingston Harbor to the Rio Cobra

River.
This man looked steadily at Barnaby True for a moment or two, and

then burst out laughing; and, indeed, Barnaby, standing there
with the bandage about his head, must have looked a very droll

picture of that astonishment he felt so profoundly at finding who
was this pirate into whose hands he had fallen.

"Well," says the other, "and so you be up at last, and no great
harm done, I'll be bound. And how does your head feel by now, my

young master?"
To this Barnaby made no reply, but, what with wonder and the

dizziness of his head, seated himself at the table over against
the speaker, who pushed a bottle of rum toward him, together with

a glass from the swinging shelf above.
He watched Barnaby fill his glass, and so soon as he had done so

began immediately by saying: "I do suppose you think you were
treated mightily ill to be so handled last night. Well, so you

were treated ill enough-- though who hit you that crack upon the
head I know no more than a child unborn. Well, I am sorry for the

way you were handled, but there is this much to say, and of that
you may believe me, that nothing was meant to you but kindness,

and before you are through with us all you will believe that well
enough."

Here he helped himself to a taste of grog, and sucking in his
lips, went on again with what he had to say. "Do you remember,"

said he, "that expedition of ours in Kingston Harbor, and how we
were all of us balked that night?"

"Why, yes," said Barnaby True, "nor am I likely to forget it."
"And do you remember what I said to that villain, Jack Malyoe,

that night as his boat went by us?"
"As to that," said Barnaby True, "I do not know that I can say

yes or no, but if you will tell me, I will maybe answer you in
kind."

"Why, I mean this," said the other. "I said that the villain had
got the better of us once again, but that next time it would be

our turn, even if William Brand himself had to come back from
hell to put the business through."

"I remember something of the sort," said Barnaby, "now that you
speak of it, but still I am all in the dark as to what you are

driving at."
The other looked at him very cunningly for a little while, his

head on one side, and his eyes half shut. Then, as if satisfied,
he suddenly burst out laughing. "Look hither," said he, "and

I'll show you something," and therewith, moving to one side,
disclosed a couple of traveling cases or small trunks with brass

studs, so exactly like those that Sir John Malyoe had fetched
aboard at Jamaica that Barnaby, putting this and that together,

knew that they must be the same.
Our hero had a strong enough suspicion as to what those two cases

contained, and his suspicions had become a certainty when he saw
Sir John Malyoe struck all white at being threatened about them,

and his face lowering so malevolently as to look murder had he
dared do it. But, Lord! what were suspicions or even certainty

to what Barnaby True's two eyes beheld when that man lifted the
lids of the two cases--the locks thereof having already been

forced--and, flinging back first one lid and then the other,
displayed to Barnaby's astonished sight a great treasure of gold

and silver! Most of it tied up in leathern bags, to be sure, but
many of the coins, big and little, yellow and white, lying loose

and scattered about like so many beans, brimming the cases to the
very top.

Barnaby sat dumb-struck at what he beheld; as to whether he
breathed or no, I cannot tell; but this I know, that he sat

staring at that marvelous treasure like a man in a trance, until,
after a few seconds of this golden display, the other banged down

the lids again and burst out laughing, whereupon he came back to
himself with a jump.

"Well, and what do you think of that?" said the other. "Is it not
enough for a man to turn pirate for? But," he continued, "it is

not for the sake of showing you this that I have been waiting for
you here so long a while, but to tell you that you are not the

only passenger aboard, but that there is another, whom I am to
confide to your care and attention, according to orders I have

received; so, if you are ready, Master Barnaby, I'll fetch her in
directly." He waited for a moment, as though for Barnaby to

speak, but our hero not replying, he arose and, putting away the
bottle of rum and the glasses, crossed the saloon to a door like

that from which Barnaby had come a little while before. This he
opened, and after a moment's delay and a few words spoken to some

one within, ushered thence a young lady, who came out very slowly
into the saloon where Barnaby still sat at the table.

It was Miss Marjorie Malyoe, very white, and looking as though
stunned or bewildered by all that had befallen her.

Barnaby True could never tell whether the amazing strange voyage
that followed was of long or of short duration; whether it