Nor could I be mistaken in the swift gleam of triumph that brightened
those dark orbs for an instant.

Some time before I had reduced our speed, for we had left the Valley
Dor many miles astern, and I felt comparatively safe.

I turned an apprehensive glance behind me, and the sight that I
saw froze the new-born hope of freedom that had been springing up
within me.

A great battleship, forging silent and unlighted through the dark
night, loomed close astern.





CHAPTER VIII

THE DEPTHS OF OMEAN




Now I realized why the black pirate had kept me engrossed with his
strange tale. For miles he had sensed the approach of succour,
and but for that single tell-tale glance the battleship would have
been directly above us in another moment, and the boarding party
which was doubtless even now swinging in their harness from the