How long I lay there I could not tell, for I became delirious.

When I came to, as I thought, from my swoon, I realized that the sloop was plunging into a heavy sea, and looking out of the companionway, to my amazement I saw a tall man at the helm.

His rigid hand, grasping the spokes of the wheel, held them as in a vise.

One may imagine my astonishment.

His rig was that of a foreign sailor, and the large red cap he wore was cockbilled over his left ear, and all was set off with shaggy black whiskers.