Page:Last Cruise of the Spitfire.djvu/94

86 interested in what was going on in the cabin I would have gone on deck at once.

Yet what followed enchained my attention so deeply that I was glad I remained.

"Say, Lowell, did you read the letter you took from the lad?" asked the captain, after he had drained his glass.

"I glanced over it," was the reply. "I didn't have time to read it through."

"Well, there's a surprise in it."

"What is it?" asked Lowell; and eagerly I bent forward to catch what might follow.

"The boy is Felix Stillwell's nephew."

"What!"

"It is a fact. You could have knocked me down with a feather," said the captain. "How he should come on board the Spitfire is the strangest thing I ever heard of."

"I reckon Stillwell would be mightily surprised if he knew his nephew was with us," observed Lowell.

"And I reckon you'd treated the lad differently if you'd known who he was."

And Captain Hannock gave a loud laugh.

This bit of conversation puzzled me not a little. What did these men know about my uncle? Could it be possible that he had anything to do with the Spitfire?