ples.

Here he discovered a small, but sturdy lad, who had apparently been
playing a violin for coppers, refusing to dance for a big brute of a
sailor, an Italian, who had seized upon his beloved instrument.

When the boy had made an effort to recover the violin the bully
deliberately smashed it on the back of a chair.

Then, laughing at the poor little chap's expressions of grief as he
gathered up the pieces tenderly in his arms, the brutal sailor had
seized upon a carter's whip, and cracking it loudly, declared that he
would lay it over the boy's shoulders unless he mounted a table and
danced to his whistling.

It was then that the big mariner strode in and stood between the lad and
his cowardly persecutors.

When good-hearted Captain Harley heard the boy's pitiful story, and that
he was a waif, having been abandoned some years before by an old man
with whom he seemed to have been traveling, he offered to befriend him,
and give him a chance to see something of the world as cabin boy on the
good old brigantine, _Falcon_.

This offer the little chap had eagerly accepted, for he believed he must
be of American birth, and somehow longed to set foot on that land far
across the sea.

Some years had passed.

Darry knew no other home save the friendly cabin of the brigantine, and
since he had no knowledge as to what his name might be, by degrees he
came to assume that of his benefactor.

During these years the boy had seen much of the world, and learned many
things under the guidance of the warm-hearted captain.

Of course he spent many bitter hours in vain regrets over the fact that
there was so little chance of his ever learning his identity--only a
slender link seemed to connect him with that mysterious past that was
hidden from his sight; and this was a curious little scar upon his right
arm just below the elbow.

It looked like a crescent moon, and had been there ever since he could
remember.

This fact caused Darry to believe it might be the result of some
accident that must have occurred while he was yet a baby.

If such were the case then some people, _somewhere_, would be apt to
recognize this peculiar mark if they ever saw it again.

Captain Harley had always encouraged him in the belief that some happy
day he would surely know the truth.

Just now, however, it really looked as though Darry need no longer allow
himself to feel any anxiety on that score.

The ocean depths would offer just as easy