Chapter Seventeen.The Recapture of the Minerva.The camp being in complete darkness, Dick took his station just inside the tent-flap and, with the aid of his night-glass, maintained a close watch upon the barque. Hitherto there had been something very much in the nature of a carouse carried on aboard her every night since her arrival, the revel usually lasting up until nearly midnight. But on this particular night there was a difference, the singing and shouting coming to an end before four bells, or ten o’clock, a circumstance that further confirmed Dick in his impression that the mutineers meditated some step of a more or less decisive character. Yet when, by the carefully screened lamp in the tent, he consulted his watch and found that the hour of midnight was already past, he had entirely failed to detect any sign of life or movement on board theMinerva.He now called Nicholls, and when the latter appeared he said to him—“If you will sit here, where I have been sitting, you will be able, by using the night-glass, to keep a very perfect watch upon the barque without being yourself seen, and the moment that you detect anything like the appearance of a boat coming ashore, please wake me. And be especially careful not to light your pipe where you can be seen, as I am particularly anxious not to scare those fellows from coming ashore. And, in their present state of mind, I am afraid that anything which might excite within them the suspicion that they are being watched would suffice to scare them back to the ship again.”Then he, in his turn, stretched himself out and was presently sound asleep.It seemed as though he had been asleep scarcely five minutes, although it was really more than an hour when Nicholls shook him by the shoulder and said—“Mr Leslie, wake up, sir, please. There’s a boat of some sort coming ashore from the barque. She’s been in sight for the last quarter of an hour, but she’s coming along very slowly, and I expect it’ll be quite another quarter of an hour before she reaches the beach.”“Where is she?” demanded Leslie, seizing the night-glass. “Oh, there she is,” he continued, as he brought the instrument to bear. “I see her. She appears to be one of the barque’s quarter-boats, Nicholls, and, so far as I can make out, there are only two men in her.”“It’s difficult to tell by starlight, sir,” replied Nicholls, “but I should say there’s about that number. There can’t be less, for she is pulling two oars, and one man wouldn’t be likely to attempt the job of pulling a heavy boat like a gig ashore, much less pull her back again against the wind. And I don’t think there’s likely to be more than two of ’em, otherwise they wouldn’t be pulling only two oars.”“Just so,” agreed Leslie. “Now where are those seizings? Oh, here they are! That’s all right; we must have them where we can put our hands upon them at a moment’s notice. And are your pistols all ready, in case you should need to use them? That’s well. Now all that remains for us to do is to quietly await the arrival of those gentlemen here, in the darkness of the tent. They will be pretty certain to come here first. And when they do, I will cover them with my revolvers while you lash their hands behind them. And take care that you lash them so securely that there will be no possibility of their getting adrift again.”“Ay, ay, sir; never fear. You may trust me for that,” answered Nicholls, cheerfully.And with that the two men seated themselves well back within the deepest shadows of the tent, and quietly awaited the approach of their nocturnal visitors.The boat was by this time so close to the beach that it was apparent that the men in her were pulling with muffled oars; and presently she glided in upon the sand so gently that she grounded without a sound. Then the two figures in her silently rose to their feet, and, laying in their oars with such extreme care that the deposition of them upon the thwarts was accomplished with perfect noiselessness, stepped gently out of her on to the yielding sand. They conferred earnestly together for a minute or two and then, turning, came cautiously up the beach, each of them carrying a short length of rope in his hand.“By Jove,” whispered Leslie to his companion, “they are determined to leave nothing to chance; they have actually brought along with them the lashings wherewith to bind me!”Nicholls chuckled quietly. “So they have, sir,” he whispered. “It’ll be a joke to see the way that they’ll be taken aback presently.”Treading carefully and using every precaution to avoid the slightest noise, the two men slowly made their way up the beach and on to the thick grass of the little savannah upon which the tent stood. They now seemed to think that the necessity for such extreme caution was past, and advanced much more rapidly, until they arrived within about twenty yards of the tent, when they again paused for a moment to confer together.“Now!” whispered Leslie; and, at the word, he and his companion rose to their feet and stepped forward into the open. The new arrivals did not see them at once, for their heads were close together as they whispered to each other, and there were perhaps never two more surprised men than they were when Leslie’s voice smote upon their ears with the words—“Don’t move an inch, or you are both dead men. And throw up your hands! If you dare to move I will fire; and, as you may see, I am covering you both!”As Leslie spoke the two men started guiltily apart, and then stood staring in stupefaction at the two figures that had so suddenly appeared before them.“Up with your hands, both of you,” reiterated Leslie, sharply, for the strangers had apparently been taken too completely by surprise to fully comprehend all that was said to them. “And,” he continued, “listen carefully to me, both of you. You are my prisoners, and I intend to make perfectly sure of you. I know all about you; I know you to be two men who are engaged in a desperate enterprise, and are likely to stick at nothing. Now, understand me well: I am just as resolute as you are, and if you give me the slightest trouble I will put a bullet through you, as surely as you stand there; so do not attempt any nonsense if you value your lives. Now you,” indicating one of them with his levelled revolver, “move three paces to your right—so; halt! that will do. Now, Nicholls, lash that fellow’s hands firmly behind his back.”“Well, here’s a pretty go,” yelled one of them to the other in an access of impotent fury. “A dandy old mess you’ve made of this job, Mister bloomin’ Peter Burton, haven’t you? and dragged me into it along with yer! I wish I’d never had nothin’ at all to do with the cussed business, now, I do; Iknowedit was boun’ to go a mucker, from the very fust! But you and that bloomin’ skowbank of a Turnbullwoulddrag me into it, temptin’ me with your yarns of treasure, and bein’ as rich as a Jew, and a lot more rot o’ the same sort, and now, here I am, landed—”“There, that will do, my man,” interrupted Leslie, sharply, as Nicholls deftly proceeded to lash the fellow’s hands behind him; “your repentance comes just a little too late to be of any use to you. You are a mutineer and a murderer, and you must take the consequences of your evil deeds.”“What doyouknow about it?” growled the man who had been addressed as Burton. “Who’s been blowin’ the gaff toyou? If it’s Turnbull that’s been doin’ a split, I’ll wring his neck for ’im!”“There, sir, number one is all right,” exclaimed Nicholls as he stepped away from his victim. “If he gets adrift I’ll give him leave to eat me, body and bones! Shall I go ahead with this other chap now?”“Yes,” assented Leslie; “truss him up, and let us have done with them both as quickly as possible.”Burton, who was an immensely powerful fellow, poured forth a volley of the most horrible curses and threats as Nicholls approached him; but Leslie stood but half a dozen paces from him, with his revolver levelled straight at the fellow’s head, and a stern word of caution sufficed to quell the fast-rising inclination to resistance that shone in the man’s eyes; he subsided suddenly to a state of sullen silence, and submitted in his turn to be bound. The whole episode had not occupied more than five minutes, at the outside. Then, with their hands firmly secured behind them, the two men were marched off to the hut that had been built by the savages, where they were compelled to lie down and submit to a further process of binding, upon the completion of which they found themselves absolutely helpless; for now both their hands and their feet were lashed together so tightly and securely that it was quite impossible for them to move otherwise than to give an occasional feeble, impotent wriggle.This accomplished to their complete satisfaction, Leslie and Nicholls returned to the tent, and resumed their alternate vigils until the morning; for they knew not what arrangements these men might have made with their fellow-mutineers, and deemed it wisest not to relax their vigilance now until the entire adventure had been brought to a successful issue.The remainder of the night passed, however, without further incident, and at daybreak the occupants of the tent were once more astir and preparing breakfast. Then, having satisfied their own appetites, they took a good liberal supply of food to the hut and, loosing their prisoner’s bonds sufficiently to allow them the use of their hands, bade them eat and drink freely.Then, when at length Burton and his companion—whose name, it transpired, was Samuel Cunliffe—sullenly acknowledged that they had eaten and drunk all that they desired, their hands were once more lashed securely behind them, their feet released, and they were bidden to follow Leslie, who went ahead while Nicholls, as rear-guard, walked close behind. And thus they all proceeded until the cave was reached, where the two new arrivals were forced to join their fellow-prisoner, Turnbull. And there, in that gloomy cavern, the exigencies of the situation demanded that, for a time at least, they should be once more subjected to the extreme discomfort of being lashed, hands and feet together, as they had been in the hut on the previous night, in order to avoid all possibility of their getting together and releasing each other.Having satisfied himself that his prisoners were absolutely secure, and dressed Turnbull’s wound afresh, Leslie, accompanied by Nicholls, next made his way to the cove, where he found the cutter lying at anchor in the centre of the little basin with all her canvas set and gently flapping in the light breeze. And a marvellously pretty picture the little craft presented with her snow-white hull, surmounted by a broad expanse of scarcely less white cotton canvas, sitting daintily and jauntily upon the water, the white of her hull and sails, and the ruddy sheen of her copper sheathing brilliantly reflected upon the smooth, dark surface of the element she rode in such saucy fashion. Dick stood for some minutes feasting his eyes upon the pretty picture she presented against the dark-brown background of scarred and riven rock that formed the sides of the basin, and then he and Nicholls quickly descended the precipitous slope to where the catamaran lay moored, and, jumping on board her, paddled off to theFlora, whose namesake fortunately happened to be on board her at the moment, but was just preparing to go ashore for another ramble.“I am afraid, dear, you cannot go just now,” said Dick, “unless indeed you would like to walk over to the camp, for we are about to return there at once, preparatory, I hope, to sailing for home to-morrow.”“Do you think Dick, it would be quite safe for me to take the walk alone? Because, if so, and we are actually going to sail to-morrow, I should so like to do it. It is a lovely walk; and there are associations connected with it that endear it to me,” she said shyly.“Very well, little girl,” responded Dick. “Then take the walk, by all means, for it is perfectly safe. Only be very careful not to look in at the cave on your way, for I have three prisoners stowed away there, now, and although they are too firmly secured to be able to hurt you, they may say things that would offend your ears.”Flora promised that she would most carefully avoid the cave, and was set ashore by the catamaran, Dick instructing Nicholls and Simpson to afterwards proceed round to the camp in that craft while he himself undertook to work the cutter round to the same point single-handed. While, therefore, the two seamen were conveying Flora to the landing-place, Leslie busied himself in taking a pull upon the halliards all round and getting up the cutter’s anchor. He was still thus engaged when the catamaran pushed off, under sail, and, passing close under the cutter’s stern, hailed, inquiringly which way she was to steer.“Keep the land close aboard on your starboard hand all the way, and you cannot go wrong,” answered Leslie, adding: “But I shall be after you in a few minutes, and will give you a lead.”The catamaran stood out of the cove, and headed away to the eastward on the starboard tack; and a few minutes later Dick followed in the cutter. Within the cove, the breeze that came in over the overlapping headlands was light and baffling, yet theFloragathered way quickly and glided along at a pace that rejoiced Leslie’s heart. But when she passed outside beyond the shelter of the heads, and felt the full strength of the briskly blowing trade wind, her solitary navigator found that he would have his hands full when it presently came to working her. For Simpson had hoisted the big jack-yard topsail, to give the sail a good stretching, and Dick had been too preoccupied to notice the fact; the little craft therefore made her first essayinthe open ocean under precisely the same canvas that she would show to the most gentle of breezes, whereas the trade wind was piping up quite fresh. The breeze struck her with something of the suddenness and violence of a squall, with everything creaking and twanging to the violence of the strain, and the little craft heeled to it until her lee rail was buried and the water was halfway up the deck to her tiny skylight; but with a plunge, like that of a mettlesome horse to the touch of the spur, she darted forward, burying her sharp bows deep in the heart of the first sea that came sweeping down upon her, and in another moment she was thrashing along in the wake of the catamaran like a mad thing, leaping and plunging with long floaty rushes over the sharply running sea that overran the ponderous Pacific swell. Within the first five minutes it became quite clear to Leslie that the catamaran was nowhere compared with this smart and handsome little ship, for to Dick the former craft seemed to sag away to leeward like an empty cask, while the cutter walked up to her as though the other had been at anchor. By the time that theFlorahad overtaken the catamaran, the two craft had gained a sufficient offing to enable them to fetch the entrance channel on the next tack, and they accordingly hove about, the cutter whisking round with a celerity that gave Leslie as much as he could do to trim over the head sheets in time to catch a turn with them as she paid off on the other tack. And now theFloraran away from the catamaran at such a rate that she had reached her anchorage and was just rounding into the wind to bring up when the other craft passed through the channel and entered the lagoon. This little trip round from the cove to the lagoon had not only given the cutter’s sails a nice stretching, but it had also stretched her new rigging to such an extent that Dick saw it would be quite necessary to set it up afresh all round before he started on his voyage, if he did not wish to risk the loss of his spars. This, however, was a matter that would have to wait; he had something of an even more pressing nature that called for his immediate attention.By the time that the catamaran had arrived alongside the cutter, the latter’s anchor was down and the jib and foresail taken in. The big gaff topsail was next hauled down and carefully stowed away, and finally the mainsail was lowered, stowed, and the coat put over it.Then Dick jumped aboard the catamaran. “I suppose you both have your revolvers?” he said to Nicholls and Simpson. “Are they fully loaded?” The two men replied in the affirmative. “Then up with your canvas,” he commanded; “and we will be off to the barque and settle this business forthwith. I will explain my plans to you as we go.”With the cutter no longer sailing alongside her, the catamaran once more took rank as a fast-sailing and weatherly craft, and soon worked out to the spot where theMinervarode at anchor. Dick, of course, by this time knew the curious craft well, and handled her with such consummate judgment that when at length he luffed her into the wind’s eye and ordered her sails to be lowered, she just handsomely slid up alongside the barque and came to a standstill abreast her starboard gangway.“Look out there and catch a turn with this ’ere painter,” exclaimed Simpson, tossing a rope’s-end to a couple of men who peered down from theMinerva’sbulwarks upon the catamaran and her crew with mingled astonishment and dismay; and at the same moment Leslie and Nicholls made a spring for the barque’s side-ladder, and, shinning up it, tumbled in on deck to the further discomfiture of the two men aforesaid, leaving Simpson to follow, which he promptly did. The whole thing was done so smartly that the only two visible members of the barque’s crew—who seemed to be quite slow-moving and slow-thinking men—were completely taken by surprise, and evidently knew not what to make of it.Meanwhile Leslie, with a single glance about the ship’s deserted decks, seemed to grasp the situation intuitively.“Are you two men named Royston and Hampton?” he demanded.“Ay, ay, sir; that’s us, sure enough,” answered one of the two, with a visible appearance of relief for some reason best known to himself.“Unbuckle your belts and throw them down on deck,” commanded Dick, quietly drawing a brace of revolvers somewhat ostentatiously from his side-pockets.“What for?” demanded one of the fellows. “Who be you, mister, to come aboard here and order—”“Come, no nonsense,” interrupted Leslie, sternly. “You will do exactly what I order you to do, at once, and without hesitation, or it will be the worse for you. You understand?” And he levelled a pistol at the head of each man.Thus gently persuaded, the two men grumblingly did as they were told. And when the discarded belts were flung savagely to the deck, it was seen that attached to each was a formidable sheath-knife.“That’s right,” commented Nicholls, as he stepped forward, also with a brace of revolvers in his hands, and with a kick swept the two belts far along the deck beyond the reach of their owners. “Now, come here, my joker, and let me tie you up,” he continued, addressing one of the men as he flung a coil of the fore topgallant brace off its belaying-pin.“I’ll be shot if I do!” exclaimed the man addressed, with a furious oath.“You will be shot if youdon’t” retorted Leslie, in a quiet, concentrated tone of voice that made the man addressed involuntarily shudder. “It is no good, men,” he continued, “your comrades are prisoners ashore and utterly powerless to help you. The game is up. We are here to regain possession of this ship,and we mean to do it. And if either of you is foolish enough to offer resistance, you will be badly hurt.”Leslie’s stern and uncompromising manner had its effect; and the two men, realising their utter helplessness, sullenly and with many curses submitted to be bound—an operation that Nicholls performed with much gusto and an effectiveness that left nothing to be desired. Then, leaving Simpson to mount guard over the grumbling pair, Dick and Nicholls went forward to the forecastle to call the remainder of the crew on deck, noticing, as they passed the galley door, that the Irish cook was busying himself inside with his pots and pans, and it was not difficult to discern that he was in a state of extreme mental perturbation. Arriving at the forecastle hatch, they found the cover on and secured with a bar and padlock, whereupon Dick returned to the galley and, putting his head inside, said—“Dolan, I see that the fore scuttle is locked. Who has the key?”“Sure, and it’s Jack Hampton that has that same, sor,” answered the cook with alacrity, and some surprise at Leslie’s unaccountable familiarity with his name. “And by the same token he also has the key of the main cabin and of Misther Marshall’s stateroom, your honour’s honour,” he added.“Which of those two men is Jack Hampton?” demanded Leslie.“It’s the fellah that’s triced up so nately to the port rail, sor,” answered Dolan.“Then go you and take the keys out of his pocket,” commanded Dick. “I have no doubt you know which they are.”“Ay, ay, sor; faith and I do that same,” replied the man.And with ready officiousness he bustled out of the galley and, walking aft, to the spot where Hampton was lashed up, thrust his hand unceremoniously into the man’s trousers pocket, withdrew a bunch of keys secured together upon a ropeyarn, and offered them to Leslie.Dick looked at them as they lay in the fellow’s hand.“There are four keys there, I see,” he said, “What are they?”“This,” answered Dolan, “is the key of the forecastle hatch. This, the key of the main cabin, which is locked. This is the key of Misther Marshall’s cabin. And this is the key of the irons that’s on the same gentleman’s hands.”“Very good,” said Leslie. “Now come forward with me, and unlock the forecastle.”The man obeyed, and presently, in response to Dick’s call, four very decent-looking young fellows came up on deck and stared about them in some bewilderment at the sight of three total strangers on board, and two of the mutineers in bonds. From the forecastle Dick proceeded aft, still with the cook in company, and compelled the latter to unlock first the main cabin in which Reynolds was found confined, then the mate’s cabin, and finally the irons on the latter’s wrists.The mate of theMinerva, who proved to be a very smart-looking young fellow, with a keen, resolute expression, but drawn and haggard with anxiety, stared in amazement at the apparition of a total stranger in his cabin, who was evidently acting with authority. But Leslie did not leave him much time for wonderment.“Mr Marshall,” he said, “permit me to introduce myself. My name is Leslie. It has been my misfortune to be cast away on the island, a glimpse of which you have perhaps occasionally caught through your cabin port. I have been on that island nearly ten months, and my preparations for leaving it were practically complete when your vessel entered the lagoon. Naturally, I came off aboard to make the acquaintance of your skipper, and found the man Turnbull in command. Knowing the fellow so well as you must, you will not be surprised to learn that, from what I saw, I quickly guessed there was something very seriously wrong aboard here; and a little judicious investigation soon enabled me to arrive at the actual facts. I am now glad to inform you that, aided by my two companions, I have managed to recover possession of the ship for you, and have much pleasure in turning her over to you. You will find Royston and Hampton, two of the mutineers, securely lashed to the rail, on deck, and doubtless you will lose no time in clapping them in irons. The other three—Turnbull, Burton, and Cunliffe—are prisoners ashore, at present, and if you are disposed to maroon them, they can, of course, remain there, as the island possesses ample resources in the shape of fruit, fish, and water, for their sustenance. But if, on the other hand, you prefer to take them with you, I will bring them off aboard at any time that may be most convenient to you.”“Thank you, Mr Leslie,” answered Marshall, fervently, as he rose and stretched himself with obvious delight in his recovered freedom, “I am sure I don’t know how I am to express my gratitude for the service that you’ve done me and the owners of this ship. I’m afraid I shall have to leave it to them to do when we get home. But I can repay you in a measure by offering you and your companions a passage to England, which I do now, with the greatest of pleasure. And I’ll do my level best to make the trip comfortable and pleasant for you. As to Turnbull and the other two that you’ve boxed up ashore, of course I must take them along with me and hand them over to the authorities upon our arrival at Capetown, because, d’ye see, they’re all guilty of the murder of poor Cap’n Hopkins. So you can bring them off—or I’ll send ashore for ’em—whenever you like. And now, if you’ve no objection, we’ll go out on deck, for, to tell you the truth, I’m just pining for a breath of fresh air.”The poor fellow looked about him in amazement when, a minute later, he stood on the barque’s poop and gazed thence at the lovely island, rich in verdure of every conceivable tint of green, and glowing here and there with patches of the vivid scarlet blossoms of the bois-immortelle, the whole bathed in the brilliant sunshine of a tropical day. Nor was he less astonished at the sight of the handsome little cutter lying at anchor close in with the shore. For this was the first time that he had ever been on deck since the day on which the island had been “made” from the barque’s fore-yard; and everything was therefore absolutely new to him, save such slight glimpses as he had been able to catch through the port-hole of his cabin. He was most anxious that Leslie and his two companions should remain on board and take dinner with him; but Dick was by this time quite as anxious to get back ashore and satisfy himself as to Flora’s safe arrival. So a compromise was made, and Marshall, having seen the two mutineers safely clapped in irons, gladly accepted Leslie’s invitation to go ashore and take lunch with him. They were still some distance from the beach when Flora was seen flitting busily about the camp; Leslie’s anxiety therefore on her account was at an end. And, after lunch, while Nicholls and Simpson went blithely to work upon the job of provisioning and watering the cutter, and stowing their several personal belongings on board, Leslie and Marshall took the catamaran and sailed round to the cove, from whence they proceeded to the cave, where they found Turnbull and his two companions still bound hard and fast, and by this time thoroughly subdued. With some difficulty they succeeded in getting the three prisoners down the face of the cliff and aboard the catamaran; and, this done, their transference to theMinervaand their confinement in irons was an easy matter. The owners of the barque had made the grave mistake of sending her to sea without so much as a single weapon of any kind to aid her officers, if need be, to maintain order and discipline among the crew; but this was an omission that Leslie was fortunately in a position to easily remedy by a simple application to the case of firearms that had formed part of theMermaid’scargo, and he willingly supplied Marshall with a brace of revolvers and a sufficient quantity of ammunition for all practical purposes. The party from the island—that is to say, Flora, Leslie, Nicholls, and Simpson—accepted a very pressing invitation from Marshall to dine and spend the evening on board theMinervain celebration of that vessel’s recovery from the mutineers; and before they left again for the shore Captain Marshall made a long entry in the ship’s official log, detailing the circumstances of her seizure and recapture, with full particulars of the part played by the steward in the latter—much to Reynolds’ gratification; and Leslie attached his signature to the entry, in attestation of its truth. Leslie also seized the opportunity to compare the chronometer saved from theMermaidwith those belonging to theMinerva, and was much gratified to find that it was absolutely to be relied upon. They returned to the camp about midnight, and turned in highly elated with the joyous knowledge that on the morrow they would actually be starting for home.As may be supposed, the whole party were early astir next morning; Nicholls and Simpson wending their way to the woods to collect a stock of fruit for the first few days of the voyage, while Flora prepared breakfast, and Leslie overhauled the entire camp to satisfy himself that he was not leaving behind him anything that would be of material service to him. There were a few trifling matters that, at the last moment, he decided to take; and these he put into the barque’s dinghy and thus carried off to the cutter. By the time that he was back the two men had returned, laden with quite as much fruit as could be conveniently stowed away aboard so small a craft as theFlora; and this also they carried off and put on board. Then came breakfast—their last meal on the island, and a happy, hilarious meal it was.Then, leaving everything just as it was, they all went down to the beach and stepped into the barque’s gig, in which they pulled alongside the cutter. Arrived there, they dropped overboard a heavy “killick” of rock which they had previously attached to the boat’s painter, and thus anchored her in readiness for theMinerva’screw whenever they might choose to fetch her. To set the cutter’s canvas was the work of a few minutes, and, this done, the anchor was quickly hove up and the little craft got under way. On their way out of the lagoon they tacked close under theMinerva’sstern, receiving a cheery farewell hail of “A quick and pleasant passage to you!” from Marshall, who was walking the poop while his scanty crew were getting some water-casks into the longboat; and ten minutes later they dashed through the entrance channel, and found themselves riding buoyantly over the long undulations of the Pacific swell, as Leslie bore away to pass to the northward of the island and thence west over the interminable miles of water that lay between them and home.My story is told; for with the voyage of theFlora, adventurous though it was, this narrative has nothing to do; suffice it to say that having called at Tahiti and Tongatabu the little cutter safely passed Port Phillip Heads and arrived at Melbourne on the fifty-third day out from the island. Here Leslie duly cashed his draft for one hundred pounds, and with the proceeds thereof secured for Flora a passage to Bombay, that young lady having decided to go on at once to her father—without waiting to visit her Australian friends—in order that the judge’s natural anxiety to see his daughter after her singular adventure might be gratified with as little delay as possible. And further to curtail that anxiety to its lowest limit, she despatched a cablegram to her father within an hour of her arrival in Melbourne. As for Dick, he allowed his affairs to stand during the two days that elapsed between their arrival and Flora’s departure, devoting himself entirely to her.But as soon as he had waved his last good-bye to her, he went to his hotel and wrote a long letter to his father’s lawyers, detailing at length the events that had transpired subsequent to the wreck of theGolden Fleece, including the discovery and appropriation of the treasure, and of his intention to take it home in the cutter; leaving to their discretion the decision whether or no they would communicate the information to his father. And, thin done, he forthwith re-victualled and re-watered theFlora, and cleared for Capetown, which was to be his next port of call.It was drawing on toward three o’clock in the afternoon of a glorious spring day when the cutter-yachtFlora, from Funchal, homeward-bound, came sliding unobtrusively into Weymouth harbour, where, having taken in her thin and almost worn-out sails, she modestly moored among a number of other yachts under the Nothe. Perhaps it was her somewhat dingy and weatherworn appearance that caused her crew to avoid attracting to her any unnecessary attention, or possibly it may have been some other reason; at all events, to all inquisitive inquiries the bronzed and bearded trio who manned her merely replied that they had “been cruising to the south’ard.” To the custom-house officers they had of course to be a little more explicit; but even they were satisfied when, after a careful search of the craft’s tiny cabins and forecastle, they were invited to sample a bottle of choice Madeira, on some four or five dozen of which Leslie willingly paid duty. The next day her sails were unbent and she was taken up the Backwater and laid up, in charge of Simpson; and a month or two later her ballast was taken out of her and stowed away in a shed under which she also was hauled up. A certain portion of this ballast was soon afterwards packed up somewhat carefully and conveyed to London by train; and eventually the little craft was sold.Meanwhile, however, Leslie had despatched a wire to his father’s solicitors, announcing his arrival home; and that same evening he received a reply requesting him to go to town and call at the office of the senders on the following day without fail, as they had intelligence of the utmost importance to communicate to him.Of course he went; and upon his arrival was at once ushered into a private room. There was but one individual in the apartment, a tall, handsome, grey-headed old gentleman of most aristocratic appearance, who rose to his feet in much agitation as Dick entered.“Father!” cried the younger man, in the utmost astonishment. “My son!” exclaimed the elder; and their hands locked in a grip that was far more expressive than many words.“Dick, my son,” at length exclaimed the Earl, when he had sufficiently overcome his agitation to speak, “let me be the first to congratulate you. Your innocence has been fully proved!”A month later the man whom we have known as Dick Leslie was once more afloat, and on his way to Bombay on board a P. and O. liner.The End.
The camp being in complete darkness, Dick took his station just inside the tent-flap and, with the aid of his night-glass, maintained a close watch upon the barque. Hitherto there had been something very much in the nature of a carouse carried on aboard her every night since her arrival, the revel usually lasting up until nearly midnight. But on this particular night there was a difference, the singing and shouting coming to an end before four bells, or ten o’clock, a circumstance that further confirmed Dick in his impression that the mutineers meditated some step of a more or less decisive character. Yet when, by the carefully screened lamp in the tent, he consulted his watch and found that the hour of midnight was already past, he had entirely failed to detect any sign of life or movement on board theMinerva.
He now called Nicholls, and when the latter appeared he said to him—
“If you will sit here, where I have been sitting, you will be able, by using the night-glass, to keep a very perfect watch upon the barque without being yourself seen, and the moment that you detect anything like the appearance of a boat coming ashore, please wake me. And be especially careful not to light your pipe where you can be seen, as I am particularly anxious not to scare those fellows from coming ashore. And, in their present state of mind, I am afraid that anything which might excite within them the suspicion that they are being watched would suffice to scare them back to the ship again.”
Then he, in his turn, stretched himself out and was presently sound asleep.
It seemed as though he had been asleep scarcely five minutes, although it was really more than an hour when Nicholls shook him by the shoulder and said—
“Mr Leslie, wake up, sir, please. There’s a boat of some sort coming ashore from the barque. She’s been in sight for the last quarter of an hour, but she’s coming along very slowly, and I expect it’ll be quite another quarter of an hour before she reaches the beach.”
“Where is she?” demanded Leslie, seizing the night-glass. “Oh, there she is,” he continued, as he brought the instrument to bear. “I see her. She appears to be one of the barque’s quarter-boats, Nicholls, and, so far as I can make out, there are only two men in her.”
“It’s difficult to tell by starlight, sir,” replied Nicholls, “but I should say there’s about that number. There can’t be less, for she is pulling two oars, and one man wouldn’t be likely to attempt the job of pulling a heavy boat like a gig ashore, much less pull her back again against the wind. And I don’t think there’s likely to be more than two of ’em, otherwise they wouldn’t be pulling only two oars.”
“Just so,” agreed Leslie. “Now where are those seizings? Oh, here they are! That’s all right; we must have them where we can put our hands upon them at a moment’s notice. And are your pistols all ready, in case you should need to use them? That’s well. Now all that remains for us to do is to quietly await the arrival of those gentlemen here, in the darkness of the tent. They will be pretty certain to come here first. And when they do, I will cover them with my revolvers while you lash their hands behind them. And take care that you lash them so securely that there will be no possibility of their getting adrift again.”
“Ay, ay, sir; never fear. You may trust me for that,” answered Nicholls, cheerfully.
And with that the two men seated themselves well back within the deepest shadows of the tent, and quietly awaited the approach of their nocturnal visitors.
The boat was by this time so close to the beach that it was apparent that the men in her were pulling with muffled oars; and presently she glided in upon the sand so gently that she grounded without a sound. Then the two figures in her silently rose to their feet, and, laying in their oars with such extreme care that the deposition of them upon the thwarts was accomplished with perfect noiselessness, stepped gently out of her on to the yielding sand. They conferred earnestly together for a minute or two and then, turning, came cautiously up the beach, each of them carrying a short length of rope in his hand.
“By Jove,” whispered Leslie to his companion, “they are determined to leave nothing to chance; they have actually brought along with them the lashings wherewith to bind me!”
Nicholls chuckled quietly. “So they have, sir,” he whispered. “It’ll be a joke to see the way that they’ll be taken aback presently.”
Treading carefully and using every precaution to avoid the slightest noise, the two men slowly made their way up the beach and on to the thick grass of the little savannah upon which the tent stood. They now seemed to think that the necessity for such extreme caution was past, and advanced much more rapidly, until they arrived within about twenty yards of the tent, when they again paused for a moment to confer together.
“Now!” whispered Leslie; and, at the word, he and his companion rose to their feet and stepped forward into the open. The new arrivals did not see them at once, for their heads were close together as they whispered to each other, and there were perhaps never two more surprised men than they were when Leslie’s voice smote upon their ears with the words—
“Don’t move an inch, or you are both dead men. And throw up your hands! If you dare to move I will fire; and, as you may see, I am covering you both!”
As Leslie spoke the two men started guiltily apart, and then stood staring in stupefaction at the two figures that had so suddenly appeared before them.
“Up with your hands, both of you,” reiterated Leslie, sharply, for the strangers had apparently been taken too completely by surprise to fully comprehend all that was said to them. “And,” he continued, “listen carefully to me, both of you. You are my prisoners, and I intend to make perfectly sure of you. I know all about you; I know you to be two men who are engaged in a desperate enterprise, and are likely to stick at nothing. Now, understand me well: I am just as resolute as you are, and if you give me the slightest trouble I will put a bullet through you, as surely as you stand there; so do not attempt any nonsense if you value your lives. Now you,” indicating one of them with his levelled revolver, “move three paces to your right—so; halt! that will do. Now, Nicholls, lash that fellow’s hands firmly behind his back.”
“Well, here’s a pretty go,” yelled one of them to the other in an access of impotent fury. “A dandy old mess you’ve made of this job, Mister bloomin’ Peter Burton, haven’t you? and dragged me into it along with yer! I wish I’d never had nothin’ at all to do with the cussed business, now, I do; Iknowedit was boun’ to go a mucker, from the very fust! But you and that bloomin’ skowbank of a Turnbullwoulddrag me into it, temptin’ me with your yarns of treasure, and bein’ as rich as a Jew, and a lot more rot o’ the same sort, and now, here I am, landed—”
“There, that will do, my man,” interrupted Leslie, sharply, as Nicholls deftly proceeded to lash the fellow’s hands behind him; “your repentance comes just a little too late to be of any use to you. You are a mutineer and a murderer, and you must take the consequences of your evil deeds.”
“What doyouknow about it?” growled the man who had been addressed as Burton. “Who’s been blowin’ the gaff toyou? If it’s Turnbull that’s been doin’ a split, I’ll wring his neck for ’im!”
“There, sir, number one is all right,” exclaimed Nicholls as he stepped away from his victim. “If he gets adrift I’ll give him leave to eat me, body and bones! Shall I go ahead with this other chap now?”
“Yes,” assented Leslie; “truss him up, and let us have done with them both as quickly as possible.”
Burton, who was an immensely powerful fellow, poured forth a volley of the most horrible curses and threats as Nicholls approached him; but Leslie stood but half a dozen paces from him, with his revolver levelled straight at the fellow’s head, and a stern word of caution sufficed to quell the fast-rising inclination to resistance that shone in the man’s eyes; he subsided suddenly to a state of sullen silence, and submitted in his turn to be bound. The whole episode had not occupied more than five minutes, at the outside. Then, with their hands firmly secured behind them, the two men were marched off to the hut that had been built by the savages, where they were compelled to lie down and submit to a further process of binding, upon the completion of which they found themselves absolutely helpless; for now both their hands and their feet were lashed together so tightly and securely that it was quite impossible for them to move otherwise than to give an occasional feeble, impotent wriggle.
This accomplished to their complete satisfaction, Leslie and Nicholls returned to the tent, and resumed their alternate vigils until the morning; for they knew not what arrangements these men might have made with their fellow-mutineers, and deemed it wisest not to relax their vigilance now until the entire adventure had been brought to a successful issue.
The remainder of the night passed, however, without further incident, and at daybreak the occupants of the tent were once more astir and preparing breakfast. Then, having satisfied their own appetites, they took a good liberal supply of food to the hut and, loosing their prisoner’s bonds sufficiently to allow them the use of their hands, bade them eat and drink freely.
Then, when at length Burton and his companion—whose name, it transpired, was Samuel Cunliffe—sullenly acknowledged that they had eaten and drunk all that they desired, their hands were once more lashed securely behind them, their feet released, and they were bidden to follow Leslie, who went ahead while Nicholls, as rear-guard, walked close behind. And thus they all proceeded until the cave was reached, where the two new arrivals were forced to join their fellow-prisoner, Turnbull. And there, in that gloomy cavern, the exigencies of the situation demanded that, for a time at least, they should be once more subjected to the extreme discomfort of being lashed, hands and feet together, as they had been in the hut on the previous night, in order to avoid all possibility of their getting together and releasing each other.
Having satisfied himself that his prisoners were absolutely secure, and dressed Turnbull’s wound afresh, Leslie, accompanied by Nicholls, next made his way to the cove, where he found the cutter lying at anchor in the centre of the little basin with all her canvas set and gently flapping in the light breeze. And a marvellously pretty picture the little craft presented with her snow-white hull, surmounted by a broad expanse of scarcely less white cotton canvas, sitting daintily and jauntily upon the water, the white of her hull and sails, and the ruddy sheen of her copper sheathing brilliantly reflected upon the smooth, dark surface of the element she rode in such saucy fashion. Dick stood for some minutes feasting his eyes upon the pretty picture she presented against the dark-brown background of scarred and riven rock that formed the sides of the basin, and then he and Nicholls quickly descended the precipitous slope to where the catamaran lay moored, and, jumping on board her, paddled off to theFlora, whose namesake fortunately happened to be on board her at the moment, but was just preparing to go ashore for another ramble.
“I am afraid, dear, you cannot go just now,” said Dick, “unless indeed you would like to walk over to the camp, for we are about to return there at once, preparatory, I hope, to sailing for home to-morrow.”
“Do you think Dick, it would be quite safe for me to take the walk alone? Because, if so, and we are actually going to sail to-morrow, I should so like to do it. It is a lovely walk; and there are associations connected with it that endear it to me,” she said shyly.
“Very well, little girl,” responded Dick. “Then take the walk, by all means, for it is perfectly safe. Only be very careful not to look in at the cave on your way, for I have three prisoners stowed away there, now, and although they are too firmly secured to be able to hurt you, they may say things that would offend your ears.”
Flora promised that she would most carefully avoid the cave, and was set ashore by the catamaran, Dick instructing Nicholls and Simpson to afterwards proceed round to the camp in that craft while he himself undertook to work the cutter round to the same point single-handed. While, therefore, the two seamen were conveying Flora to the landing-place, Leslie busied himself in taking a pull upon the halliards all round and getting up the cutter’s anchor. He was still thus engaged when the catamaran pushed off, under sail, and, passing close under the cutter’s stern, hailed, inquiringly which way she was to steer.
“Keep the land close aboard on your starboard hand all the way, and you cannot go wrong,” answered Leslie, adding: “But I shall be after you in a few minutes, and will give you a lead.”
The catamaran stood out of the cove, and headed away to the eastward on the starboard tack; and a few minutes later Dick followed in the cutter. Within the cove, the breeze that came in over the overlapping headlands was light and baffling, yet theFloragathered way quickly and glided along at a pace that rejoiced Leslie’s heart. But when she passed outside beyond the shelter of the heads, and felt the full strength of the briskly blowing trade wind, her solitary navigator found that he would have his hands full when it presently came to working her. For Simpson had hoisted the big jack-yard topsail, to give the sail a good stretching, and Dick had been too preoccupied to notice the fact; the little craft therefore made her first essayinthe open ocean under precisely the same canvas that she would show to the most gentle of breezes, whereas the trade wind was piping up quite fresh. The breeze struck her with something of the suddenness and violence of a squall, with everything creaking and twanging to the violence of the strain, and the little craft heeled to it until her lee rail was buried and the water was halfway up the deck to her tiny skylight; but with a plunge, like that of a mettlesome horse to the touch of the spur, she darted forward, burying her sharp bows deep in the heart of the first sea that came sweeping down upon her, and in another moment she was thrashing along in the wake of the catamaran like a mad thing, leaping and plunging with long floaty rushes over the sharply running sea that overran the ponderous Pacific swell. Within the first five minutes it became quite clear to Leslie that the catamaran was nowhere compared with this smart and handsome little ship, for to Dick the former craft seemed to sag away to leeward like an empty cask, while the cutter walked up to her as though the other had been at anchor. By the time that theFlorahad overtaken the catamaran, the two craft had gained a sufficient offing to enable them to fetch the entrance channel on the next tack, and they accordingly hove about, the cutter whisking round with a celerity that gave Leslie as much as he could do to trim over the head sheets in time to catch a turn with them as she paid off on the other tack. And now theFloraran away from the catamaran at such a rate that she had reached her anchorage and was just rounding into the wind to bring up when the other craft passed through the channel and entered the lagoon. This little trip round from the cove to the lagoon had not only given the cutter’s sails a nice stretching, but it had also stretched her new rigging to such an extent that Dick saw it would be quite necessary to set it up afresh all round before he started on his voyage, if he did not wish to risk the loss of his spars. This, however, was a matter that would have to wait; he had something of an even more pressing nature that called for his immediate attention.
By the time that the catamaran had arrived alongside the cutter, the latter’s anchor was down and the jib and foresail taken in. The big gaff topsail was next hauled down and carefully stowed away, and finally the mainsail was lowered, stowed, and the coat put over it.
Then Dick jumped aboard the catamaran. “I suppose you both have your revolvers?” he said to Nicholls and Simpson. “Are they fully loaded?” The two men replied in the affirmative. “Then up with your canvas,” he commanded; “and we will be off to the barque and settle this business forthwith. I will explain my plans to you as we go.”
With the cutter no longer sailing alongside her, the catamaran once more took rank as a fast-sailing and weatherly craft, and soon worked out to the spot where theMinervarode at anchor. Dick, of course, by this time knew the curious craft well, and handled her with such consummate judgment that when at length he luffed her into the wind’s eye and ordered her sails to be lowered, she just handsomely slid up alongside the barque and came to a standstill abreast her starboard gangway.
“Look out there and catch a turn with this ’ere painter,” exclaimed Simpson, tossing a rope’s-end to a couple of men who peered down from theMinerva’sbulwarks upon the catamaran and her crew with mingled astonishment and dismay; and at the same moment Leslie and Nicholls made a spring for the barque’s side-ladder, and, shinning up it, tumbled in on deck to the further discomfiture of the two men aforesaid, leaving Simpson to follow, which he promptly did. The whole thing was done so smartly that the only two visible members of the barque’s crew—who seemed to be quite slow-moving and slow-thinking men—were completely taken by surprise, and evidently knew not what to make of it.
Meanwhile Leslie, with a single glance about the ship’s deserted decks, seemed to grasp the situation intuitively.
“Are you two men named Royston and Hampton?” he demanded.
“Ay, ay, sir; that’s us, sure enough,” answered one of the two, with a visible appearance of relief for some reason best known to himself.
“Unbuckle your belts and throw them down on deck,” commanded Dick, quietly drawing a brace of revolvers somewhat ostentatiously from his side-pockets.
“What for?” demanded one of the fellows. “Who be you, mister, to come aboard here and order—”
“Come, no nonsense,” interrupted Leslie, sternly. “You will do exactly what I order you to do, at once, and without hesitation, or it will be the worse for you. You understand?” And he levelled a pistol at the head of each man.
Thus gently persuaded, the two men grumblingly did as they were told. And when the discarded belts were flung savagely to the deck, it was seen that attached to each was a formidable sheath-knife.
“That’s right,” commented Nicholls, as he stepped forward, also with a brace of revolvers in his hands, and with a kick swept the two belts far along the deck beyond the reach of their owners. “Now, come here, my joker, and let me tie you up,” he continued, addressing one of the men as he flung a coil of the fore topgallant brace off its belaying-pin.
“I’ll be shot if I do!” exclaimed the man addressed, with a furious oath.
“You will be shot if youdon’t” retorted Leslie, in a quiet, concentrated tone of voice that made the man addressed involuntarily shudder. “It is no good, men,” he continued, “your comrades are prisoners ashore and utterly powerless to help you. The game is up. We are here to regain possession of this ship,and we mean to do it. And if either of you is foolish enough to offer resistance, you will be badly hurt.”
Leslie’s stern and uncompromising manner had its effect; and the two men, realising their utter helplessness, sullenly and with many curses submitted to be bound—an operation that Nicholls performed with much gusto and an effectiveness that left nothing to be desired. Then, leaving Simpson to mount guard over the grumbling pair, Dick and Nicholls went forward to the forecastle to call the remainder of the crew on deck, noticing, as they passed the galley door, that the Irish cook was busying himself inside with his pots and pans, and it was not difficult to discern that he was in a state of extreme mental perturbation. Arriving at the forecastle hatch, they found the cover on and secured with a bar and padlock, whereupon Dick returned to the galley and, putting his head inside, said—
“Dolan, I see that the fore scuttle is locked. Who has the key?”
“Sure, and it’s Jack Hampton that has that same, sor,” answered the cook with alacrity, and some surprise at Leslie’s unaccountable familiarity with his name. “And by the same token he also has the key of the main cabin and of Misther Marshall’s stateroom, your honour’s honour,” he added.
“Which of those two men is Jack Hampton?” demanded Leslie.
“It’s the fellah that’s triced up so nately to the port rail, sor,” answered Dolan.
“Then go you and take the keys out of his pocket,” commanded Dick. “I have no doubt you know which they are.”
“Ay, ay, sor; faith and I do that same,” replied the man.
And with ready officiousness he bustled out of the galley and, walking aft, to the spot where Hampton was lashed up, thrust his hand unceremoniously into the man’s trousers pocket, withdrew a bunch of keys secured together upon a ropeyarn, and offered them to Leslie.
Dick looked at them as they lay in the fellow’s hand.
“There are four keys there, I see,” he said, “What are they?”
“This,” answered Dolan, “is the key of the forecastle hatch. This, the key of the main cabin, which is locked. This is the key of Misther Marshall’s cabin. And this is the key of the irons that’s on the same gentleman’s hands.”
“Very good,” said Leslie. “Now come forward with me, and unlock the forecastle.”
The man obeyed, and presently, in response to Dick’s call, four very decent-looking young fellows came up on deck and stared about them in some bewilderment at the sight of three total strangers on board, and two of the mutineers in bonds. From the forecastle Dick proceeded aft, still with the cook in company, and compelled the latter to unlock first the main cabin in which Reynolds was found confined, then the mate’s cabin, and finally the irons on the latter’s wrists.
The mate of theMinerva, who proved to be a very smart-looking young fellow, with a keen, resolute expression, but drawn and haggard with anxiety, stared in amazement at the apparition of a total stranger in his cabin, who was evidently acting with authority. But Leslie did not leave him much time for wonderment.
“Mr Marshall,” he said, “permit me to introduce myself. My name is Leslie. It has been my misfortune to be cast away on the island, a glimpse of which you have perhaps occasionally caught through your cabin port. I have been on that island nearly ten months, and my preparations for leaving it were practically complete when your vessel entered the lagoon. Naturally, I came off aboard to make the acquaintance of your skipper, and found the man Turnbull in command. Knowing the fellow so well as you must, you will not be surprised to learn that, from what I saw, I quickly guessed there was something very seriously wrong aboard here; and a little judicious investigation soon enabled me to arrive at the actual facts. I am now glad to inform you that, aided by my two companions, I have managed to recover possession of the ship for you, and have much pleasure in turning her over to you. You will find Royston and Hampton, two of the mutineers, securely lashed to the rail, on deck, and doubtless you will lose no time in clapping them in irons. The other three—Turnbull, Burton, and Cunliffe—are prisoners ashore, at present, and if you are disposed to maroon them, they can, of course, remain there, as the island possesses ample resources in the shape of fruit, fish, and water, for their sustenance. But if, on the other hand, you prefer to take them with you, I will bring them off aboard at any time that may be most convenient to you.”
“Thank you, Mr Leslie,” answered Marshall, fervently, as he rose and stretched himself with obvious delight in his recovered freedom, “I am sure I don’t know how I am to express my gratitude for the service that you’ve done me and the owners of this ship. I’m afraid I shall have to leave it to them to do when we get home. But I can repay you in a measure by offering you and your companions a passage to England, which I do now, with the greatest of pleasure. And I’ll do my level best to make the trip comfortable and pleasant for you. As to Turnbull and the other two that you’ve boxed up ashore, of course I must take them along with me and hand them over to the authorities upon our arrival at Capetown, because, d’ye see, they’re all guilty of the murder of poor Cap’n Hopkins. So you can bring them off—or I’ll send ashore for ’em—whenever you like. And now, if you’ve no objection, we’ll go out on deck, for, to tell you the truth, I’m just pining for a breath of fresh air.”
The poor fellow looked about him in amazement when, a minute later, he stood on the barque’s poop and gazed thence at the lovely island, rich in verdure of every conceivable tint of green, and glowing here and there with patches of the vivid scarlet blossoms of the bois-immortelle, the whole bathed in the brilliant sunshine of a tropical day. Nor was he less astonished at the sight of the handsome little cutter lying at anchor close in with the shore. For this was the first time that he had ever been on deck since the day on which the island had been “made” from the barque’s fore-yard; and everything was therefore absolutely new to him, save such slight glimpses as he had been able to catch through the port-hole of his cabin. He was most anxious that Leslie and his two companions should remain on board and take dinner with him; but Dick was by this time quite as anxious to get back ashore and satisfy himself as to Flora’s safe arrival. So a compromise was made, and Marshall, having seen the two mutineers safely clapped in irons, gladly accepted Leslie’s invitation to go ashore and take lunch with him. They were still some distance from the beach when Flora was seen flitting busily about the camp; Leslie’s anxiety therefore on her account was at an end. And, after lunch, while Nicholls and Simpson went blithely to work upon the job of provisioning and watering the cutter, and stowing their several personal belongings on board, Leslie and Marshall took the catamaran and sailed round to the cove, from whence they proceeded to the cave, where they found Turnbull and his two companions still bound hard and fast, and by this time thoroughly subdued. With some difficulty they succeeded in getting the three prisoners down the face of the cliff and aboard the catamaran; and, this done, their transference to theMinervaand their confinement in irons was an easy matter. The owners of the barque had made the grave mistake of sending her to sea without so much as a single weapon of any kind to aid her officers, if need be, to maintain order and discipline among the crew; but this was an omission that Leslie was fortunately in a position to easily remedy by a simple application to the case of firearms that had formed part of theMermaid’scargo, and he willingly supplied Marshall with a brace of revolvers and a sufficient quantity of ammunition for all practical purposes. The party from the island—that is to say, Flora, Leslie, Nicholls, and Simpson—accepted a very pressing invitation from Marshall to dine and spend the evening on board theMinervain celebration of that vessel’s recovery from the mutineers; and before they left again for the shore Captain Marshall made a long entry in the ship’s official log, detailing the circumstances of her seizure and recapture, with full particulars of the part played by the steward in the latter—much to Reynolds’ gratification; and Leslie attached his signature to the entry, in attestation of its truth. Leslie also seized the opportunity to compare the chronometer saved from theMermaidwith those belonging to theMinerva, and was much gratified to find that it was absolutely to be relied upon. They returned to the camp about midnight, and turned in highly elated with the joyous knowledge that on the morrow they would actually be starting for home.
As may be supposed, the whole party were early astir next morning; Nicholls and Simpson wending their way to the woods to collect a stock of fruit for the first few days of the voyage, while Flora prepared breakfast, and Leslie overhauled the entire camp to satisfy himself that he was not leaving behind him anything that would be of material service to him. There were a few trifling matters that, at the last moment, he decided to take; and these he put into the barque’s dinghy and thus carried off to the cutter. By the time that he was back the two men had returned, laden with quite as much fruit as could be conveniently stowed away aboard so small a craft as theFlora; and this also they carried off and put on board. Then came breakfast—their last meal on the island, and a happy, hilarious meal it was.
Then, leaving everything just as it was, they all went down to the beach and stepped into the barque’s gig, in which they pulled alongside the cutter. Arrived there, they dropped overboard a heavy “killick” of rock which they had previously attached to the boat’s painter, and thus anchored her in readiness for theMinerva’screw whenever they might choose to fetch her. To set the cutter’s canvas was the work of a few minutes, and, this done, the anchor was quickly hove up and the little craft got under way. On their way out of the lagoon they tacked close under theMinerva’sstern, receiving a cheery farewell hail of “A quick and pleasant passage to you!” from Marshall, who was walking the poop while his scanty crew were getting some water-casks into the longboat; and ten minutes later they dashed through the entrance channel, and found themselves riding buoyantly over the long undulations of the Pacific swell, as Leslie bore away to pass to the northward of the island and thence west over the interminable miles of water that lay between them and home.
My story is told; for with the voyage of theFlora, adventurous though it was, this narrative has nothing to do; suffice it to say that having called at Tahiti and Tongatabu the little cutter safely passed Port Phillip Heads and arrived at Melbourne on the fifty-third day out from the island. Here Leslie duly cashed his draft for one hundred pounds, and with the proceeds thereof secured for Flora a passage to Bombay, that young lady having decided to go on at once to her father—without waiting to visit her Australian friends—in order that the judge’s natural anxiety to see his daughter after her singular adventure might be gratified with as little delay as possible. And further to curtail that anxiety to its lowest limit, she despatched a cablegram to her father within an hour of her arrival in Melbourne. As for Dick, he allowed his affairs to stand during the two days that elapsed between their arrival and Flora’s departure, devoting himself entirely to her.
But as soon as he had waved his last good-bye to her, he went to his hotel and wrote a long letter to his father’s lawyers, detailing at length the events that had transpired subsequent to the wreck of theGolden Fleece, including the discovery and appropriation of the treasure, and of his intention to take it home in the cutter; leaving to their discretion the decision whether or no they would communicate the information to his father. And, thin done, he forthwith re-victualled and re-watered theFlora, and cleared for Capetown, which was to be his next port of call.
It was drawing on toward three o’clock in the afternoon of a glorious spring day when the cutter-yachtFlora, from Funchal, homeward-bound, came sliding unobtrusively into Weymouth harbour, where, having taken in her thin and almost worn-out sails, she modestly moored among a number of other yachts under the Nothe. Perhaps it was her somewhat dingy and weatherworn appearance that caused her crew to avoid attracting to her any unnecessary attention, or possibly it may have been some other reason; at all events, to all inquisitive inquiries the bronzed and bearded trio who manned her merely replied that they had “been cruising to the south’ard.” To the custom-house officers they had of course to be a little more explicit; but even they were satisfied when, after a careful search of the craft’s tiny cabins and forecastle, they were invited to sample a bottle of choice Madeira, on some four or five dozen of which Leslie willingly paid duty. The next day her sails were unbent and she was taken up the Backwater and laid up, in charge of Simpson; and a month or two later her ballast was taken out of her and stowed away in a shed under which she also was hauled up. A certain portion of this ballast was soon afterwards packed up somewhat carefully and conveyed to London by train; and eventually the little craft was sold.
Meanwhile, however, Leslie had despatched a wire to his father’s solicitors, announcing his arrival home; and that same evening he received a reply requesting him to go to town and call at the office of the senders on the following day without fail, as they had intelligence of the utmost importance to communicate to him.
Of course he went; and upon his arrival was at once ushered into a private room. There was but one individual in the apartment, a tall, handsome, grey-headed old gentleman of most aristocratic appearance, who rose to his feet in much agitation as Dick entered.
“Father!” cried the younger man, in the utmost astonishment. “My son!” exclaimed the elder; and their hands locked in a grip that was far more expressive than many words.
“Dick, my son,” at length exclaimed the Earl, when he had sufficiently overcome his agitation to speak, “let me be the first to congratulate you. Your innocence has been fully proved!”
A month later the man whom we have known as Dick Leslie was once more afloat, and on his way to Bombay on board a P. and O. liner.
|Chapter 1| |Chapter 2| |Chapter 3| |Chapter 4| |Chapter 5| |Chapter 6| |Chapter 7| |Chapter 8| |Chapter 9| |Chapter 10| |Chapter 11| |Chapter 12| |Chapter 13| |Chapter 14| |Chapter 15| |Chapter 16| |Chapter 17|