"
The boys moved with one accord toward the after cabin. The Fortuna
rolled viciously in the trough of the choppy sea, making their footing
extremely unsteady. Jack swung open the door.
Starting back in amazement he bumped into Tom who was following closely.
Harry was at their heels peering over their shoulders.
"Where is he?" gasped Jack wonderingly. "Where did he go?"
"The bird has flown!" declared Tom in a tragic tone.
"Bag and baggage!" asserted Harry.
True enough, not a sign of the stranger remained except the pile of
water soaked garments in which he had been clothed when first brought
into the cabin. These lay in a heap on the floor.
"Maybe he's out on the after deck," ventured Jack still hopeful.
"Let's see," answered Tom. "If he is there, I'll cook and wash dishes
and scrub decks for a week on end!"
The after deck was empty. The visitor was nowhere in sight.
"Well, it looks as if he had come up out of the sea like a modern
Neptune and like Old Neptune has gone back into it again," Jack said,
his voice shaking. You don't suppose the fright he had turned his head
and made him commit suicide, do you?"
"Suicide your tintype!" stoutly scorned Tom. "Do you think that fellow
would commit suicide in a rowboat?"
"What do you mean?" questioned Jack wonderingly.
"I mean that our young pirate friend got one perfectly good square meal
of food, one entire new outfit of clothes and one rowboat from this
bunch of kindergartners.
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