CHAPTER II.
COUNT D'ARTIGAS.
Just who was this Count d'Artigas?
A Spaniard?
So his name would appear to indicate.

Yet on the stern of his schooner, in letters of gold, was the name _Ebba_, which is of pure Norwegian origin.

And had you asked him the name of the captain of the _Ebba_, he would have replied, Spade, and would doubtless have added that that of the boatswain was Effrondat, and that of the ship's cook, Helim--all singularly dissimilar and indicating very different nationalities.
Could any plausible hypothesis be deducted from the type presented by Count d'Artigas?
Not easily.

If the color of his skin, his black hair, and the easy grace of his attitude denoted a Spanish origin, the _ensemble_ of his person showed none of the racial characteristics peculiar to the natives of the Iberian peninsula.
He was a man of about forty-five years of age, about the average height, and robustly constituted.

With his calm and haughty demeanor he resembled an Hindoo lord in whose blood might mingle that of some superb type of Malay.