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Notwithstanding that Madden's head was under the hood, Caradoc sensed the fact that his friend had experienced some profound shock.

"What's the matter? What's wrong?" he whispered from the outside.

"The mate—the mate of the Vulcan is in there!" gasped the American.

"Impossible!" Smith dived under the hood for himself.

Both heads just managed to squeeze in and the two men stared at Malone as if he were raised from the grave. The mate, however, was not funereal. He seemed in the pink of condition, rather fatter than he had been on the dock, and he wore the pleased expression of a man well content with life.

As men will do when under a fixed stare, he presently glanced about and his eyes fell on