Though he was not so tall by the breadth of a hand as the Sardanian, who was indeed a giant, the tawny head of the son of the snows was inches above that of the young naval man. As they stood one on either side of him, Everson involuntarily stepped back a pace. He felt puny and absurd, and he was by no means a small man. For the half of a minute, Janess gazed through the glasses, altering their focus slightly. He lowered them suddenly and swung on his heel to face Everson. "Put the ship--" He stopped and his face flushed. "I beg pardon," he continued. "It is not mine to give orders, but yonder a man floats. He lies face downward across a piece of wreckage." Lieutenant Everson hurried into the pilot house, and down to old MacKechnie among his boilers was flashed the signal which swung the gray cruiser off her course in a long arc to the southward. "A man, you say?" the commander queried as he rejoined Polaris and the king. "But what is it that glitters so?" Polaris, with the glasses at his eyes again, did not at once reply. When he did, the answer was surprising. "It is the man that glitters. If he be not of metal himself, then is he clothed in it from head to toe, and it glimmers--" He turned to Minos and lapsed into the Greek of Sardanes. "It glimmers, Minos, as did that suit of armor which thou didst leave behind thee in the cave on the Mount of Latmos," he said. The king stirred to quick interest. The eyes of the naval lieutenant widened with amazement as Polaris repeated his remark in English. "A man clothed in metal! In armor!" he exclaimed. "And floating here in the South Atlantic! What can that mean? Poor chap; whoever he is, he will never tell us. He must have been dead for days. But it's well worth the investigation." Impatiently the three men stood at the rail of the bridge as the ship swung on. * * * * * At an eighteen-knot clip, the _Minnetonka_ cut swiftly through the waves, nearer and nearer to the flashing burden of the waves. Soon other eyes not so keen as those of Polaris could descry the strange objective of the ship. Forward along the rail, sailors clustered, shouting their surprise, and staring at the unusual spectacle of the glittering man afloat. Presently, with a deep thrumming of her valves, the _Minnetonka_ slowed down. With a word to Everson, Polaris left the bridge and hastened across the deck. As a boat was swung over the side in the davits, he sprang into it with the sailors. Less than two-score strokes of the oars took the boat alongside the floating mystery. Then, indeed, had the sailors cause to stare with open mouths.