CHAPTER II.
THE MYSTERY OF THE PIRATE CRAFT.“Let me talk, now!” exclaimed Bessie. “I was the first one to reach the deck after you called us, Max.”
“All right. I’ve no objections. I feel like seven different kinds of a jay, anyhow, when I tell this story; and, by the great boot in Chatham Street, Nick, I’d willingly give up a million rather than go through with it again! All the same, I want those race cups back again, if I can get them.”
“So the pirate took them, did he? I thought he said it might be arranged so that you could keep them?”
“Oh, he took them, all right; and he did offer to make an arrangement; but I will tell you all about that when Bessie gets through.”
Nick turned so that he faced Miss Harlan.
“I was the first one to reach the deck,” she began, “and I saw a distingu
