He let his eyes fall from my face and gazed round him with the air of one who cannot yet persuade his understanding of the realities of the scene he moves in. "Tut!" cried he presently, addressing himself, "what matters the truth, as you say? Yes, the _Boca del Dragon_ is a pirate. You have of course rummaged her, and guessed her character by what you found?" "I met with enough to excite my suspicion," said I. "The ship's company of such a craft as this do not usually go clothed in lace and rich cloaks, and carry watches of this kind," tapping my breast, "in their fobs and handfuls of gold in their pockets." "Unless----" said he. "Unless," I answered, "their flag is as black as our prospects." "You think them black?" cried he, the look of resentment that was darkening his face dying out of it. "The vessel is sound, is not she?" I replied that she appeared so, but it would be impossible to be sure until she floated. "The stores?" "They are plentiful." "They should be!" he cried; "we have the liquor and stores of a galleon and two carracks in our hold, apart from what we originally laid in for the cruise. Everything will have been kept sweet by the cold." "All the stores seem sound," said I; "we shall not starve--no, not if we were to be imprisoned here for three years. But all the same our prospects are black, for here is the ship high and fixed; the ice in parting may crush her, and we have no boat." "May, may!" he cried with a Frenchman's vehemence. "You have _may_ and you also have _may not_ in your language. Let me feel my strength improving; we shall then find means of throwing a light upon these black prospects of yours." He smiled, or rather grinned, his fangs making the latter term fitter for the mirthless grimace he made. "May I ask your name?" said I. "Jules Tassard, at your service," said he, "third in command of the _Boca del Dragon_, but good as Mate Trentanove, and good as Captain Mendoza, and good as the cabin boy Fernando Prado; for we pirates are republicans, sir, we know no social distinctions save those we order for the convenience of working ship. Now let me tell you the story of our disaster. We had come out of the Spanish Main into the South Seas, partly to escape some British and French cruisers which were after us and others of our kind, and partly because ill-luck was against us, and we could not find our account in those waters. We sailed in December two years ago----" "Making the year----?" I interrupted. He started, and then grinned again.