When the Pirate neared us, we could make out a man coming down the ratlines from the foretop, showing that she had evidently sighted us even before we had her.  As she drew nearer still, we could see Trunnell standing on the weather side of the poop, holding to a backstay and gazing aloft at his canvas, evidently giving orders for the watch to bear a hand and lay aft to the braces.  He would lay his mainyards aback and heave her to.  Along the high topgallant rail could be seen faces, and on the quarter-deck Mrs. Sackett stood with our friend Thompson, better known in the Antipodes as Jackwell, the burglar.  As I watched him standing there pointing to us, I thought of poor Jim.

“Wheel down,” I heard Trunnell bawl as the ship came within fifty fathom.  “Slack away that lee brace; steady your wheel.”

Before the ship’s headway had slackened we had out the oars and were rowing for her.  In a moment a sailor had flung us a line, and we were towing along at the mizzen channels, with the men climbing aboard as fast as they could.

Miss Sackett was passed over the rail, and her mother took her below.  I was the last one except Johnson to climb up.  He stood at the bow ready to hitch on the tackles.  But other men took his place, and as I went over the rail Thompson came and shook my hand warmly.

“Sink me, Mr. Rolling, but you’ve had a time of it, hey?” he said.  “How are the men on the Sovereign?  We’ve been standing along north and south for six days, expecting to pick you up, and here you are.  It’s all that Trunnell’s doings.  I was for going ahead the day we missed you, but that big-headed little rascal insisted on hunting for you after seeing you leave the wreck.  Where’s Jim and Phillippi, and the rest?”

The sincerity of his welcome had taken me off my guard, and I found myself standing there shaking his hand.  Then I recovered myself.

“It’s a pity Captain Thompson missed this ship the day she sailed,” I said quietly.  “We were informed the night before that he’d be with us.  It might have saved the lives of some good men.”

He let go my hand and smiled strangely at me, his hooked nose working, and his eyes taking that hard glint I knew so well.

“So you were really waiting for a man you’d never seen, hey?  Was that the lay of it?  And when I came aboard and said I was Thompson, you gulped down the bait, hey, you bleeding fool.  Who the dickens do you think I am, anyhow?”

“I happen to know that you pass by the name of Jackwell,” I said.  “Here, Chips,” I called, but the carpenter was already at my side.  “What name did Jim give the captain, and what was his business?”

“‘Tis no use av makin’ any more av it, cap’n.  We know all about ye.  Th’ best thing ye can do is to step down from the quarter-deck.”

“Trunnell,” said Thompson, with his drawl, “what d’ye think of these men coming back clean daft?”