"No, not for this voyage. I think----"

But the captain was interrupted by a shout up the wharf. A man,
seemingly a sailor, came running toward the schooner.

"There he is now!" the captain exclaimed. "All aboard. Hurry up, my man,
or you'll be left."

The man flung himself on the gangplank which was separated from the
dock by some little distance. He scrambled aboard, and just then, Alice,
standing near Jack Jepson, heard the old sailor utter an exclamation of
surprise, and murmur:

"Can that be him? Can that be him--after these years? No, it can't be!"

"All aboard!" cried Captain Brisco. And the _Mary Ellen_, in charge of a
fussy little tug, began moving away from the dock.

CHAPTER XIV

OVERBOARD

Alice was so impressed with what she had heard sailor Jack say, that, in
spite of the desire to give all her attention to the start of the
voyage, destined to be so momentous, she looked first at Jepson and then
at the new arrival. The latter appeared to be an ordinary sailor, but
there was a commanding air about him, as though he were used to having
his own way. But he was sufficiently subservient to Captain Brisco,
saluting the commander in formal fashion.

"You're late!" growled Captain Brisco.

"Yes--couldn't help it," was the almost cheerful answer. "You knew I
wouldn't be left though, didn't you?"

"Well, I wasn't sure of it," Alice heard the captain answer. "Get below,
and then we'll talk later."

Alice turned to see how Jack Jepson was taking this. The old salt seemed
to be listening intently, but he had his back turned.

"He knows that man who just came aboard," decided Alice, "and there is
something queer about it all. In fact there is something queer about
this vessel and Captain Brisco. I feel as though I were in the midst of
a mystery. I'm going to see if I can't solve it."

That was Alice's way. She always did like to solve puzzles, from the
time when she was a small child, and she went at this one in much the
same way as had been her habit in the case of the simple ones in the
juvenile papers she took when a little girl.

"There's something between Captain Brisco, Jack Jepson and this new
man," Alice decided. "Jack is afraid of being recognized, and yet he
wants to make sure who this new man is. Can it have anything to do with
the mutiny, I wonder?"

It was a question she could not answer just then. She resolved to be on
the watch, to look and listen, without saying much, until