Then, the rain clapping down in a deluge, Barnaby leaped into the
saloon, pursued by he knew not what thoughts. For if that was indeed
the image of old William Brand that he had seen once before and now
again, then the grave must indeed have gaped and vomited out its dead
into the storm of wind and lightning; for what he beheld that moment,
he hath ever averred, he saw as clear as ever he saw his hand before
his face.

This is the last account of which there is any record when the figure
of Captain William Brand was beheld by the eyes of a living man. It
must have occurred just off the Highlands below the Sandy Hook, for the
next morning when Barnaby True came upon deck it was to find the sun
shining brightly and the brigantine riding upon an even keel, at anchor
off Staten Island, three or four cable-lengths distance from a small
village on the shore, and the town of New York in plain sight across
the water.

'Twas the last place in the world he had expected to see.

IX

And, indeed, it did seem vastly strange to lie there alongside Staten
Island all that day, with New York town in plain sight across the water
and yet so impossible to reach. For whether he desired to escape or no,
Barnaby True could not but observe that both he and the young lady were
so closely watched that they might as well have been prisoners, tied
hand and foot and laid in the hold, so far as any hope of getting away
was concerned.

Throughout that day there was a vast deal of mysterious coming and
going aboard the brigantine, and in the afternoon a sail-boat went up
to the town, carrying the Captain of the brigantine and a great load in
the stern covered over with a tarpaulin. What was so taken up to the
town Barnaby did not then guess, nor did he for a moment suspect of
what vast importance it was to be for him.

About sundown the small boat returned, fetching the pirate Captain of
the brigantine back again. Coming aboard and finding Barnaby on deck,
the other requested him to come down into the saloon for he had a few
serious words to say to him. In the saloon they found the young lady
sitting, the broad light of the evening shining in through the
skylight, and making it all pretty bright within.

The Captain commanded Barnaby to be seated, whereupon he chose a place
alongside the young lady. So soon as he had composed himself the
Captain began very seriously, with a preface somewhat thus: "Though you
may think me the Captain of this