Barentz_ foundered, nothing of
them having been heard since!

With one bound he was across the room.

"Eric!" he exclaimed in astonishment.

"Fritz!" ejaculated the other; and, forgetting their surroundings in the
joy of thus meeting again, the two brothers fell into each other's arms,
almost weeping with joy.

"By thunder!" said the Rhode Islander to his friend the sea captain,
both looking on with much interest at the affecting scene, "I'm glad I
made him come in here anyhow, and we'll have a licker-up on the strength
of it, Cap'en Brown. It seems it wer a sort of providence that made him
take our boat away haar, after all!"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

THE YANKEE SKIPPER.

"And how on earth did you escape?" asked Fritz, when he and Eric had
somewhat recovered from their first surprise and emotion at meeting
again in so unexpected a manner.

"Well, it's a long story to tell, brother," replied Eric, as soon as he
could speak calmly, putting his arm through that of Fritz and drawing
him towards a sort of long sofa, like a divan, which stretched across
one side of the wide apartment where they had so strangely encountered--
the other and opposite side of the room being occupied by the usual long
hotel "bar," common in most American towns, in front of which various
little detached groups of people were standing up, drinking and chatting
together. "Suppose we come to an anchor here awhile, and I'll reel you
off a yarn about all that has happened to me since I left Lubeck."

"All right, we may as well sit down, at all events," said Fritz. "They
won't charge us for that, eh?"

"Oh no, I guess not," answered Eric, with that old light-hearted laugh
of his, which his brother had never thought he should ever hear again.
"This is a free country, they say, you know!"

"Now tell me all about yourself," said Fritz, when they had ensconced
themselves comfortably in the furthest corner of the divan, or settee,
which they had pretty much to themselves. "I'm dying to know how you
were saved!"

"Right you are, my hearty," replied Eric, in sailor fashion. "Here goes
for the log of my cruise in the poor old _Gustav Barentz_!"

"Fire away!" said Fritz; and then, the lad thereupon began his story.

The ship, Eric declared, was found to be terribly leaky almost as soon
as they had started on the voyage, and this necessitated their having to
put into Plymouth for repairs, which detained them a considerable time.
Indeed, it was