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"He was yesterday," replied Norris; "these fellows from whom you so bravely rescued us told us that much"

"Thank God!" whispered Billy Byrne

"Whatclosely at Byrne as though trying to place hiht have attempted to evade the question but the new Billy Byrne was no coward in any departht that I had killed him," he replied, "the day that we took the Lotus"

Captain Norris looked at the speaker in undisguised horror

"You!" he cried "You were one of those damned cut-throats! You the , has he offered you any indignities?"

"Don't judge hiirl "But for hi since Some day I will tell you of his heroiset, 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 onof pirates left us," continued the captain, "we rigged an extra wireless that they didn't knoe had, and it wasn't long before we raised the warship Alaska Her commander put a crew on board the Lotus withnecessary 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 iined Then we set out in company with the warship to search for the 'Clarinda,' as your Captain Sih a pirate junk just north of Luzon--he said he'd heard from the natives of a little out-of-the-way island near Forantine had been wrecked there in the recent typhoon, and his description of the vessel led us to believe that it ht be the 'Clarinda,' or Halfmoon

"We made the island, and after considerable search found the survivors Each of 'em tried to lay the blareed that a man by the name of Theriere with a seaman called Byrne, had taken you into the interior, and that they had believed you dead until a few days since they had captured one of the natives and learned that you had all escaped, and andering in some part of the island unknown to them