CHAPTER V.
TELLS HOW THE SAILOR GEORGIO RHODOJANI GAVE EVIDENCE AT THE "LUGGER INN." I came gradually back to consciousness amid a buzz of voices.
Uncle Loveday was bending over me, his every button glistening with sympathy, and his face full of kindly anxiety.

What had happened, or how I came to be lying thus upon the sand, I could not at first remember, until my gaze, wandering over my uncle's shoulder, met the Captain's eyes regarding me with a keen and curious stare.
He was standing in the midst of a small knot of fishermen, every now and then answering their questions with a gesture, a shrug of the shoulders, or shake of the head; but chiefly regarding my recovery and waiting, as I could see, for me to speak.
"Poor boy!" said Uncle Loveday.

"Poor boy! I suppose the sight of this man frightened him." I caught the Captain's eye, and nodded feebly.
"Ah, yes, yes.

You see," he explained, turning to the shipwrecked man, "your sudden appearance upset him: and to tell you the honest truth, my friend, in your present condition--in your present condition, mind you--your appearance is perhaps somewhat--startling.
Shall we say, startling ?" In answer to my uncle's apologetic hesitation the stranger merely spread out his palms and shrugged his shoulders.
"Ah, yes.

A foreigner evidently.