ly intelligible voice,--

"Captain, I have to make a proposal to you."

"What is it?"

"Have you still a place?"

"For a sailor?"

"For a sailor."

"Yes and no."

"Is it yes?"

"It is yes, if the man suits me."

"Will you take me?"

"You are a seaman?"

"I have served the sea for twenty-five years?

"Where?"

"In the Southern Seas,"

"Far?"

"Yes, far, far."

"Your age?"

"Forty-four years."

"And you are at Port Egmont?"

"I shall have been there three years, come Christmas."

"Did you expect to get on a passing whale-ship?"

"No."

"Then what were you doing here?"

"Nothing, and I did not think of going to sea again."

"Then why seek a berth?"

"Just an idea. The news of the expedition your schooner is going
on was spread. I desire, yes, I desire to take part in it--with
your leave, of course."

"You are known at Port Egmont?"

"Well known, and I have incurred no reproach since I came here."

"Very well," said the captain. "I will make inquiry respecting
you."

"Inquire, captain, and if you say yes, my bag shall he on board
this evening."

"What is your name?"

"Hunt."

"And you are--?"

"An American."

This Hunt was a man of short stature, his weather beaten face was
brick red, his skin of a yellowish-brown like an Indian's, his
body clumsy, his head very large, his legs were bowed, his whole
frame denoted exceptional strength, especially the arms, which
terminated in huge hands. His grizzled hair resembled a kind of fur.

A particular and anything but prepossessing character was imparted
to the physiognomy of this individual by the extraordinary keenness
of his small eyes, his almost lipless mouth, which stretched from
ear to ear, and his long teeth, which were dazzlingly white; their
enamel being intact, for he had never been attacked by scurvy, the
common scourge of seamen in high latitudes.

Hunt had been living in the Falklands for three years; he lived
alone on a pension, no one knew from whence this was derived. He was
singularly uncommunicative, and passed his time in fishing, by which
he might have lived, not only as a matter of sustenance, but as an
article of commerce.

The information gained by Captain Len Guy was necessarily
incomplete, as it was confined to Hunt's conduct during his
residence at Port Egmont. The man did not fight, he did not drink,
and he had given many proofs of his Herculean strength. Concerning
his past nothing was known, but