It was the sea.
A breeze blew in from the bay and stirred his window curtains; it was salt in his nostrils....

And, staring out into the breathing night, he saw a succession of pictures....
Stripped to a pair of cotton trousers, with a dripping cutlass in one hand and a Colt's revolver in the other, an adventurer at the head of a bunch of dogs as desperate as himself fought his way across the reeking decks of a Chinese junk, to close in single combat with a gigantic one-eyed pirate who stood by the helm with a ring of dead men about him and a great two-handed sword upheaved....

This adventurer was--Clement J.Cleggett! ...
Through the phosphorescent waters of a summer sea, reckless of cruising sharks, a sailor's clasp knife in his teeth, glided noiselessly a strong swimmer; he reached the side of a schooner yacht from which rose the wild cries of beauty in distress, swarmed aboard with a muttered prayer that was half a curse, swept the water from his eyes, and with pale, stern face went about the bloody business of a hero....

Again, this adventurer was Clement J.Cleggett! Cleggett turned from the window.
"I'll do it," he cried.

"I'll do it!" He grasped a cutlass.
"Pirates!" he cried, swinging it about his head.