"But for him I should have been dead and worse than dead
long since. Some day I will tell you of his heroism and his
chivalry, and don't forget, Captain, that he has just saved you
and Mr. Foster from captivity and probable death."
"That's right," exclaimed the officer, "and I want to thank
him; but I don't understand about Mallory."
"Never mind about him now," said Billy Byrne. "If he's
alive that's all that counts--I haven't got his blood on my
hands. Go on with your story."
"Well, after that gang of pirates left us," continued the
captain, "we rigged an extra wireless that they didn't know we
had, and it wasn't long before we raised the warship Alaska.
Her commander put a crew on board the Lotus with machinists
and everything necessary to patch her up--coaled and
provisioned her and then lay by while we got her in running
order. It didn't take near as long as you would have imagined.
Then we set out in company with the warship to search for
the 'Clarinda,' as your Captain Simms called her. We got on
her track through a pirate junk just north of Luzon--he said
he'd heard from the natives of a little out-of-the-way island
near Formosa that a brigantine had been wrecked there in the
recent typhoon, and his description of the vessel led us to
believe that it might be the 'Clarinda,' or Halfmoon.
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