The boys pulled entirely around the vessel several times, wondering at her condition, but still unable by their shouts to attract the attention of her crew. On her stern they read her name, _Esmeralda_, of Baltimore. Finally Breeze spied a rope hanging over her side near the fore-chains, and proposed that they board her by it. Having tested it and found it strong enough for their purpose, they went up hand over hand. Breeze was the first to clamber over the bulwarks and gain her deck. It was absolutely deserted, and he walked aft while Wolfe was making the dory fast. There was something mysterious and awful about this apparently deserted brig that caused Breeze to shiver and gaze about him apprehensively. He walked as far aft as the quarter-deck, and as he gained it a gaunt, pale-faced man came slowly up the companion-way leading down into the cabin, and stood looking at him. Breeze, too, stared for a moment, and then sprang towards the trembling figure. CHAPTER XV. A WONDERFUL MEETING. As Breeze came towards him, the white-faced man in the companion-way, who was so weak and emaciated that he seemed to have just arisen from a sick-bed, tried feebly to wave him back. The effort was made in vain; for the next moment the boy had sprung to where he was standing, thrown his arms about his neck, and, half laughing, half crying in his excitement, was exclaiming, “Father! oh, father! We knew you weren’t dead. We knew you’d come back to us--mother and I did!” “Gently, lad, gently. I’m not quite steady on my pins yet, and if you don’t have a care you’ll pitch me down the steps,” answered Captain McCloud, trying to speak calmly and to quiet the excited boy. But tears stood in his eyes, and directly his weakness had mastered him. He cried out, brokenly, “God bless you, Breeze! God bless you, my boy! I’d thought never to see you again, and in my heart I’d bidden you good-by, mother and you. But I wasn’t reconciled to it. I couldn’t die without seeing you. You’d not ask it, lad. You’ll not leave me again to the fever, will you?” Then, overcome by his emotion, the man who had been so strong, but who was now so weak and wellnigh helpless, bowed his head and sobbed like a child. This pitiful sight, and the piteous appeal just made to him, almost unnerved Breeze, but he controlled himself by a strong effort, and led his father to a seat, at the same time speaking soothing and loving words to him. “No, father,” he said, “of course I’ll not leave you. I’ve come to stay with you, and take care of you, and carry you into port, where mother is waiting for us. Only you must hurry and get well, for it would never do to go back to her sick and looking like this, you know. It would frighten her to see you so.”