of the hurricane season, I hope. In fact, this was most unusual.
Yes, I should say it would be very safe to make a cruise in the
Tartar. I know the craft well."

"And what are the chances of success?" asked Walter in a low voice of
the commander, as Jack, with his sister and the Robinson twins
withdrew a little apart to discuss the important question of the
coming cruise.

Captain Ponchero shrugged his shoulders in truly foreign fashion.

"One cannot tell, Senor," he said in a low voice. "Certainly it is a
dubious tale the sailors told--a tale of mutiny and shipwreck. But
the sea is a strange place. Many unforeseen things happen on it and
in it. I have seen shipwrecked ones come back from almost certain
death, and again--"

He hesitated.

"Well?" asked Walter, a bit impatiently. "Might as well hear the
worst with the best."

"And again," resumed the captain, "I have seen what would appear to
be the safest voyage result in terrible tragedy. So one who knows
much of the sea, hesitates to speak with certainty about it. I
should say, Senor, that the chance was worth taking."

"Then we may find some of them alive?"

"You may, and again--you may not. But it is worth trying. If you