"I swear as a Mason! Hard up your helm!"

"Hard up your helm!" the captain shouted aft, and, paying off like a
bird, the _Ocean Star_ swept by the stranger's stern near enough to
almost touch her. As they went sailing past her, it became Captain
Lane's turn to bend forward with a lantern, and ascertain who his new
acquaintance was. There, painted in blood-red letters on the black
stern, was the name

MORGIANNA.

He had scarce read it, when the same clear tones, more subdued, hailed
him, as he thought, with somewhat of kindness:

"Captain, do me the favor to back your main-yard; I will come aboard of
you--_alone_!"

[Illustration: Morgianna.]

The captain gave the necessary orders, and "hove to" within three or
four cables' length of the stranger; and in a very few minutes a
four-oared boat, containing but a single figure besides the crew, was
seen approaching the _Ocean Star_.

Captain Lane had a ladder put over the gangway and threw a rope to the
boat as it came alongside; and the next moment the stranger sprang upon
the deck of the _Ocean Star_.

With an easy grace he gave to the captain the quick, intelligible sign