May he not have put it out of order ?" Dick Sand was growing enlightened.

He had his finger on the truth.

He now understood all that was ambiguous in Negoro's conduct.

He saw his hand in this chain of incidents which had led to the loss of the "Pilgrim," and had so fearfully endangered those on board of her.
But what, then, was this miserable man?
Had he been a sailor and known so well how to hide the fact?
Was he capable of contriving this odious plot which had thrown the ship on the coast of Africa?
At any rate, if obscure points still existed in the past, the present could offer no more of them.

The young novice knew only too well that he was in Africa, and very probably in the fatal province of Angola, more than a hundred miles from the coast.