o 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 nig