“I'm Captain Jones,” he shouted, “of the brigantine Clarinda, Frisco to Yokohama with dynamite. We disabled our rudder yesterday, an' this afternoon fire started in the hold. It's makin' headway fast now, an'll reach the dynamite most any time. You'd better take us aboard, an' get away from here as quick as you can. 'Tain't safe nowhere within five hun'erd fathom of her.” “You'd better make haste, Captain, hadn't you?” suggested Mr. Harding. “I don't like the looks of things, sir,” replied that officer. “She ain't flyin' any dynamite flag, an' if she was an' had a hold full there wouldn't be any particular danger to us, an' anyone that has ever shipped dynamite would know it, or ought to. It's not fire that detonates dynamite, it's concussion. No sir, Mr. Harding, there's something queer here--I don't like the looks of it. Why just take a good look at the faces of those men. Did you ever see such an ugly-looking pack of unhung murderers in your life, sir?” “I must admit that they're not an overly prepossessing crowd, Norris,” replied Mr. Harding. “But it's not always either fair or safe to judge strangers entirely by appearances. I'm afraid that there's nothing else for it in the name of common humanity than to take them aboard, Norris. I'm sure your fears are entirely groundless.” “Then it's your orders, sir, to take them aboard?” asked Captain Norris. “Yes, Captain, I think you'd better,” said Mr. Harding. “Very good, sir,” replied the officer, turning to give the necessary commands. The officers and men of the Halfmoon swarmed up the sides of the Lotus, dark-visaged, fierce, and forbidding. “Reminds me of a boarding party of pirates,” remarked Billy Mallory, as he watched Blanco, the last to throw a leg over the rail, reach the deck. “They're not very pretty, are they?” murmured Barbara Harding, instinctively shrinking closer to her companion. “'Pretty' scarcely describes them, Barbara,” said Billy; “and do you know that somehow I am having difficulty in imagining them on their knees giving up thanks to the Lord for their rescue--that was your recent idea of 'em, you will recall.” “If you have purposely set yourself the task of being more than ordinarily disagreeable today, Billy,” said Barbara sweetly, “I'm sure it will please you to know that you are succeeding.” “I'm glad I'm successful at something then,” laughed the man. “I've certainly been unsuccessful enough in another matter.” “What, for example?” asked Barbara, innocently. “Why in trying to make myself so agreeable heretofore that you'd finally consent to say 'yes' for a change.” “Now you are going to make it all the worse by being stupid,” cried the girl petulantly. “Why can't you be nice, as you used to be before you got this silly notion into your head?” “I don't think it's a silly notion to be head over heels in love with the sweetest girl on earth,” cried Billy. “Hush! Someone will hear you.”