The "Rodeur's" prow is turned toward it, for there is hope, there rescue! As the stranger draws nearer, the straining eyes of the French helmsman discerns something strange and terrifying about her appearance.

Her rigging is loose and slovenly, her course erratic, she seems to be idly drifting, and there is no one at the wheel.

A derelict, abandoned at sea, she mocks their hopes of rescue.

But she is not entirely deserted, for a faint shout comes across the narrowing strip of sea and is answered from the "Rodeur." The two vessels draw near.
There can be no launching of boats by blind men, but the story of the stranger is soon told.

She, too, is a slaver, a Spaniard, the "Leon," and on her, too, every soul is blind from opthalmia originating among the slaves.