"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 you _don'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 ash.o.r.e 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, d.i.c.k and Nicholls went forward to the forecastle to call the remainder of the crew on deck, noticing, as they pa.s.sed 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k. "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.

d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k'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 d.i.c.k 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 the _Minerva_, 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 ash.o.r.e, 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 grat.i.tude 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 pa.s.sage 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 ash.o.r.e, 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 ash.o.r.e 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 p.o.o.p 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 sh.o.r.e. 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 d.i.c.k was by this time quite as anxious to get back ash.o.r.e 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 ash.o.r.e 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 the _Minerva_ and 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 the _Mermaid's_ cargo, and he willingly supplied Marshall with a brace of revolvers and a sufficient quant.i.ty 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 the _Minerva_ in celebration of that vessel's recovery from the mutineers; and before they left again for the sh.o.r.e Captain Marshall made a long entry in the ship's official log, detailing the circ.u.mstances 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 the _Mermaid_ with those belonging to the _Minerva_, 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 the _Flora_; 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 anch.o.r.ed her in readiness for the _Minerva's_ crew 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 the _Minerva's_ stern, receiving a cheery farewell hail of "A quick and pleasant pa.s.sage to you!" from Marshall, who was walking the p.o.o.p 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 pa.s.s 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 the _Flora_, 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sage 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 d.i.c.k, 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 the _Golden 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 the _Flora_, 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-yacht _Flora_, from Funchal, homeward-bound, came sliding un.o.btrusively 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 d.i.c.k 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.

"d.i.c.k, 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 d.i.c.k Leslie was once more afloat, and on his way to Bombay on board a P. and O. liner.

THE END.