half he noticed a faint gray light stealing through the grating overhead, and he knew that morning had arrived.
A few minutes later he heard some one in the adjoining room, and, almost immediately after, the sliding door in the partition opened.
Van saw the kindly face of the mate looking in at him, and he hailed it with a sigh of relief.
"It's all right, young feller; ther captain has put ye under my charge. Come on out of yer prison, an' take breakfast with me. After that you will have ter take up yer quarters in ther forecastle."
Glad enough to leave the dingy place, Van crawled through the hole, and found himself in a portion of the ship's cabin.
The mate showed him where the water was, and the boy took a good wash.
After this he felt much better.
A few minutes later the cook entered with a steaming breakfast, the sight of which made Van's mouth water.
He had not realized that he was hungry until now, and he ate as only a hungry mortal can.
Van's first meal aboard the Mary Newman was his best, as he found out afterward.
The table the captain and mates ate from was far different from that of the forecastle.
When breakfast was over the mate conducted our hero to the forecastle, and pointed out his bunk to him.
From that moment the rough part of Van Vincent's life began.
The crew, for the most part, were a grimy, villainous-looking set.
But Van was built of the sort of material that never flinches, and he took things as they came in a philosophical way.
Almost the first person he saw when he went on watch for the first time was a sailor with a heavy red beard that nearly concealed his face.
Van at once judged this to be the person who came aboard the vessel in such a mysterious manner, and when he got the opportunity, he broached the subject to him.
The sailor acknowledged such to be the case, but evaded all the questions the boy put to him.
Van sized him up pretty well, and made up his mind that the fellow was a villain of the first water.
About an hour after his brief conversation with the red-whiskered sailor, Van saw him coiling a length of rope.
To catch on to the way it was done so neatly, he watched him keenly.
Suddenly Van gave a start.
He noticed that the man was minus a thumb, and that, too, from his right hand.
He thought of Doc Clancy, his uncle's murderer, but said nothing.
What if this man was the scoundrel in disguise?
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE CONGO RIVER
Van kept a good watch upon the red-whiskered sailor during the voyage, and every day he became more and more satisfied that he was no other than Doc Clancy, alias John Moreland.
At length the stormy Atlantic was crossed, and one day, when the sun was so hot that it fairly melted the pitch on her decks, the Mary Newman came to anchor at the mouth of the Congo River, on the African coast.
Lank Edwards, the mate, had been as good as his word, and had indeed been a friend to our hero during the voyage.
Though Van did not like the life of a sailor any too well, he got along fairly enough, thinking all the while that he would yet corner the murderer of his uncle, and be the means of having him conveyed to the United States to stand trial.
As it was past noon when the ship came to anchor, the captain concluded to wait till morning before he proceeded ten miles up the river to a trading station.
A canvas awning was stretched over the deck, and the crew of the Mary Newman lay under this in a listless manner, waiting for the sun to go down so they could get the cool breeze which invariably comes after nightfall in that latitude.
Van noticed that the red-whiskered sailor appeared to be very uneasy, and he concluded to watch him closely.
The afternoon passed and darkness came, and with it the cooling breeze they so much desired.
Van was in the second watch, and, consequently, he turned into his bunk soon after mess.
But it was so warm below decks that he could not sleep, and after tossing about for perhaps an hour, he went on deck and crawled into a fold of the main jib, which made a first-class hammock.
It was cool and refreshing, and the boy soon fell asleep.
He was awakened perhaps two hours later by a wild commotion on deck.
In the twinkling of an eye he dropped from the sail and gazed about him.
A heavy smoke completely blinded him for a moment, and then he knew what was the matter.
The ship was on fire!
Even as this fact occurred to him, a bright column of flame leaped from the forward hatch, and the tarred rigging catching fire, it seemed as if a hundred writhing, fiery serpents were shooting skyward.
Under the supervision of the captain and mates the sailors were trying manfully to subdue the flames, and Van rushed forward and joined them.
But the fire kept on increasing, and at the end of fifteen minutes the captain saw it was useless to attempt to save the ship.
Reluctantly he gave the order to lower the boats, and convey what could be saved of the cargo ashore.
Van ran into the forecastle to get the few things he possessed before the ship was abandoned.
As he reached his bunk a cry of horror escaped his lips.
By the light of the blazing rigging he saw the body of a man lying in a pool of blood in the bunk he had so lately occupied.
"Great heavens!" exclaimed the boy, "this is the work of the red-whiskered sailor, and I firmly believe he mistook this man for me. Poor fellow! he no doubt crawled in my bunk after I left it, thinking it was cooler there. I am now sure the man with the thumbless hand is Doc Clancy."
But there was no time for any further speculation, and Van knew this well.
Seizing his little bundle, he dashed up the companion way and ran to assist the crew in loading the boats.
One of these was missing, as well as two of the crew, and the captain was at a loss to understand it.
Van ran his eye over the group of sailors, and saw that the red-whiskered fellow was one of the missing ones.
He quickly informed the mate of what he knew.
"It was he who set ther ship afire, then!" exclaimed Lank Edwards. "We'll chase him up an' catch him yet, see if we don't."
The flames were now gaining rapid headway, and it behooved those on board the doomed vessel to be as expeditious as possible.
Two
