"Off the girl's finger. 'Tis but one, Mr. Van Stadens." "But fon, hey! By toonder, Toonder, but dot ring is der fonderfullest part of your story as yet." He took it in his hand and his eyes danced greedily to the sparkle of the beautiful bauble. "Well," continued Captain Thunder, "we put the man into a spare cabin, and gave the job of watching him to the steward, a stout hearty fellow. The girl was stone-dead, of course. I ordered her dress, jacket and hat to be removed, likewise the jewellery about her--specially a noble rope of pearls----" "By toonder, no! You shoke, Toonder!" cried Van Stadens. "Ye shall see with your own eyes--ye shall see with your own eyes!" exclaimed the captain. "I gave these orders more with the idea of the things proving of use to identify her by than for their value. I never saw such under-linen, sir. 'Twas exquisitely fine and choice. Beyond description, Mr. Van Stadens. There was a ball-wound in her shoulder, with a caking of blood about it. That the fellow below had done this thing I could not suppose. There were no arms of any kind--if you except a big clasp knife--on him or in his boat. We buried the poor, sweet, murdered thing in her fine linen, giving her a sailor's hammock for a coffin and a sailor's toss for a last farewell. As for the boat, she looked unnatural and unlucky, and I think my men would have mutinied if I had ordered them to sling her over the side. We unstepped the mast and sent her adrift for the MAN she belongs to to pick up, if so be he stands in need of her." "Vot MAN?" inquired Van Stadens. "Vanderdecken," responded Captain Thunder, in a low voice, and with as much awe in his face as his fiery pimple of a nose would suffer to appear. "Vot!" shouted Van Stadens. "Der Flying Deutchman!" Captain Thunder nodded. The other smiled, and then broke into a roar of laughter. "Hark, Mr. Van Stadens, wait till I've done," exclaimed Thunder, with his face full of blood. "All that day the man remained moody, with a lunatic's sullenness. He refused to eat or drink. I was in and out a dozen times but couldn't get him to speak. Well, sir, at nine o'clock in the night the steward came and told me he was asleep. He was watched all night, but never stirred; all next night, and the day after that, and the night after that, sir, but he never stirred. For sixty hours he slept, Mr. Van Stadens, or may I not leave this room alive! and I thought he meant dying in that fashion. Then he awoke, sat up and talked rationally. His mind had come back to him and he was as sensible as you or me." "Vell?" "Well, he fed and rested a bit, and then feeling stronger, he told me his story." And here Captain Thunder repeated what is already known to the reader. Mr. Van Stadens listened with his fat face full of incredulity. "'Tis fonderful, inteet," said he, "but it isn't true." "I believe every word of it," said Thunder. "Blast the Flying Dutchman! who doubts him?" "Your sailor man is mad," said Van Stadens.