the whole
situation. A short distance away the waters of the bay were lapping
through the darkness onto the beach.

He noticed that there were a number of heavy tracks going towards the
door of the odd little restaurant, and they were quite recent. He
listened intently to hear, if possible, who might be inside, but while
he could distinguish voices, there were only a few noncommittal sounds.
He wondered what the captain found so interesting, but just then there
came a scuffling of chairs on the floor within and the sound of guttural
voices. Jim drew back suddenly, and in evident alarm. The door was
slowly opened and a heavy figure dressed in sailor garb lurched out into
the darkness followed by a stealthy form.

CHAPTER XIV

THE VISITOR

"I wonder what mischief the old man is chawing on?" It was the forward
deck of the _Sea Eagle_, and the speaker, Old Pete, the sailor, of
unsavory memory. "He's been as savage as a bear with a sore head two
days past, and that means he's brewing some sort of devilment."

"Maybe he's watching to trail some craft going out with a rich cargo,"
said Jack Cales, of likewise deleterious recollection, who was seated on
the forward hatch, opposite the ancient mariner who was himself resting
on a coil of rope.

"I dunno about that," said Pete, puffing meditatively on his black,
stunted pipe; "according to my notion it's something ashore. Old Hunch
was aboard airly this mornin', and that greaser is a sure sign of
trouble. Reminds me of a croaking black raven. I'd like to wring his wry
neck for him. He ain't fit to associate with respectable pirates like
us."

"I don't see why the cap'n sets such store by him, anyhow," protested
Jack Cales.

"It's an unhung gang of bloody cutthroats the old man's got ashore,"
remarked Old Pete. "I wouldn't want any trafficking with them."

There was something amusing in this feud between the rascals on ship and
ashore, something like the rivalry between the navy and army.

"Shut your jaw," said Cales peremptorily; "here comes the cap'n now."

To the earlier readers of "The Frontier Boys," he is a familiar figure
but he is well worth introducing to those who are meeting him for the
first time. Captain William Broome, familiarly known as Bill, or the old
man, was a remarkable person. There was a strange softness in Captain
Broome's tread, like that of the padded panther, as he came forward
along the main deck. He appeared like a man always rea