CHAPTER XXII.
I fall into the hands of pirates--How they treated me, and what I said to them--The result of the whole ending in a melancholy separation and in a most unexpected gift.
My heart seemed to leap into my throat at the words; and, turning round, I beheld a man of immense stature, and fierce aspect regarding me with a smile of contempt.

He was a white man,--that is to say, he was a man of European blood, though his face, from long exposure to the weather, was deeply bronzed.

His dress was that of a common seaman, except that he had on a Greek skull-cap, and wore a broad shawl of the richest silk round his waist.

In this shawl were placed two pair of pistols and a heavy cutlass.

He wore a beard and moustache, which, like the locks on his head, were short, curly, and sprinkled with gray hairs.
"So, youngster," he said, with a Sardonic smile, while I felt his grasp tighten on my shoulder, "the villains have been baulked of their prey, have they?
We shall see, we shall see.