, though he placed his
hand on his revolver, so as to be ready for any emergency, the crew of
the _Albatross_, who were busying themselves around, seeming to hold
no suspicion of the situation.

Just as Captain Fred put his foot on the plank, the islander took a
short step forward, like a panther gathering himself for the leap upon
its victim. At that very instant, as if by intuition, Captain Fred
turned about and leveled his revolver at the muffled figure, which
paused. Every one who was looking on supposed, of course, the boy was
going to fire, but, though his finger pressed the trigger, he did not
discharge his weapon. With the pistol pointed straight at the savage,
Fred slowly backed up the plank, keeping his foe covered until he
himself was on the deck of the schooner.

The barbarian seemed paralyzed. After taking the slight step forward,
he paused and stood motionless, staring and transfixed, until his
victim was beyond his reach. Then, without a word or exclamation, he
turned about, and strode away to where his infuriated and discomfited
comrades were watching him with not the slightest doubt he would
prevent the escape of the white boy. Within the succeeding hour the
_Albatross_ was standing down the bay, with all sail spread; and her
long voyage to distant California was begun.

Ah, that journey from the South Seas across the equator and northward
into the stern climate of the Temperate Zone!

Not one of those who participated in it can forget it to his dying
day. They had many hours of fierce, wild weather, in which the
_Albatross_ was more than once in danger, but Captain Hardy was a good
sailor, he had a good crew, and he safely rode through it all.

Then came those delightful nights which seem peculiar to the Pacific,
when the moonlight takes on a witchery of its own, and the calm sea
becomes like an enchanted lake as the vessel glides over it.

Captain Hardy was a kind man as well as a skilful sailor, and, since
he received a most liberal price for the passage of the three persons
who joined him at Wauparmur, the best treatment was given them.

It was on this homeward voyage that Captain Fred Sanders told to Mate
Storms and Inez Hawthorne the story of his life, the main points of
which have already been hinted to the reader. He ran away from his
home in San Francisco when but a mere boy, scarcely ten years old. He
was led into all sorts of evil, and was so deeply implicated in a
fierce mutiny that,