“I am going to take you right back to that anchorage, Carter, so that you can see things just as they are, so[11] far as the surroundings are concerned. We are headed for there now.”

[11]

“That is a good idea,” said Nick.

“Well, my cigar was something more than half-smoked, and, as I am a slow smoker, it must have been something like half an hour after I was alone before anything happened; and then it all happened so suddenly that it was on me before I knew it.”

“What was?” asked the detective.

“The pirate. Wait.”

“I’m waiting.”

“The fellow made his approach from behind, which would account for my not seeing him or his craft until he was right there, on the deck, so to speak, but I don’t think that would account for my not hearing him, do you?”

“You might have been dozing in your chair,” suggested Nick.

“Bosh! I was never wider awake in my life!”

“You were, doubtless, so absorbed in what you were thinking about that you paid no attention to your surroundings.”

“That’s all bosh, too. I was just as alert as I ever am. As I always am; and I’m not generally known as a sleeper, or a dreamer, either.”

“That’s quite true, Kane.”

“I was just as wide-awake as I am now. I was just as much on the alert as I am now. The night was so still, and the yacht and everything aboard of her was so silent, that I could have heard a tack drop, the whole[12] length of the Goalong. But the fact remains, all the same, that I did not hear a sound.

[12]

“I was seated right here, in this position and in this same chair, looking off, as you observe, almost astern. The bow of the yacht was pointed toward the open Sound, for the tide was coming in.

“My cigar was on the last quarter—I told you that once already; but never mind—and I had about made up my mind to light a fresh one, when I discovered that I hadn’t another one in my pocket, and would have to go below to get it. That settled it. If I had felt any doubt about smoking another cigar, the discovery of the fact 

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