The door opened, and, to the stupefaction of the party, Mark Thorndyke entered the room.

"Good Heavens, Mark!" Dick exclaimed, springing forward and seizing his hand, "is it really you alive in the flesh? We had given you up for dead. We have been searching the town for you all night, and were just going to set out for Rotterdam in search of a barge on which we believed you were carried. Why, it seems almost a miracle!"

The two prize fighters also came forward, and shook hands with a pressure that would have made most men shrink.

"I am as glad, Mr. Thorndyke," Gibbons said, "as if anyone had given me a thousand pounds. I have never quite given up hope, for, as I said to Mr. Chetwynd, if you got but a shadow of a chance, you would polish off those nigger fellows in no time; but I was afraid that they never would give you a chance. Well, I am glad, sir."

"Mark, this is the Lieutenant of the watch here," Dick said. "He has been most kind, and has himself headed the search that has been made for you all night. Now tell us all about it."