put out a big, hairy fist, and I gripped it heartily, decidedly
liking the man as his eyes frankly met mine. He appeared honest and
square, a fine type of the English seaman.

"Tom Watkins, you said. May I ask if you were out on the bow-sprit
along with Haines last night?"

"Just afore the long-boat come in? Yes, we were there."

"Well, I was down below, hanging to the cable, and overheard you two
talking together. Somehow, Watkins, you do not seem to me to fit in
exactly with this gang of pirates; you don't look to be that sort. How
long have you been with them?"

He glanced about warily, lowering his voice until it became a hoarse
whisper.

"Three years, mate, and most of that time has been hell. I haven't
even been ashore, but once, and that was on an island. These fellows
don't put any trust in my kind, nor give them any chance to cut and
run. Once in awhile a lad does get away, but most of them are caught;
and those that are sure get their punishment. They never try it again.
I've seen them staked out on the sand, and left to die; that ain't no
nice thing to remember."

"But how did you come into it?" "Like most of the rest. I was second
mate of the _Ranger_, a Glasgow brig. We loaded with sugar at
Martinique, for London. These fellows overhauled us at daybreak about
a hundred miles off the east end of Cuba. They had a swift schooner,
and five guns, one a Long Tom. All we had to fight them with was about
fifteen men, and two brass carronades. Our skipper was Scotch, and he
put up some fight, but it wasn't any use. There was only three of us
left alive when the pirates came aboard. One of these died two days
later, and another was washed overboard and drowned down in the Gulf.
I am all that is left of the _Ranger_."

"You saved your life by taking on?"

"Sanchez had the two of us, who were able to stand, back in his cabin.
He put it to us straight. He said it was up to us whether we signed
up, or walked the plank; and he didn't appear to care a damn which we
chose. The cold-blooded devil meant it too, for he was raging mad at
getting only five hundred pounds off the brig. Well, Jack and I looked
at each other--and then we signed."

"And you say others of this crew have been obtained in the same
manner?" I questioned, deeply interested, and perceiving in this a ray
of hope.

"Not exactly--no, I wouldn't precisely say that. It's true, perhaps,
that most of the Britishers were forced to join in about the