"Faith, and I know when to obey my superior officer, captain. A glass
round, and after that----"

"Peter, Peter," said I, "'tis the 'after that' which sends many a good
hulk to the bottom."

"Not meaning to apply the term to Peter Bligh, but by way of what the
landsmen call 'silime,'" said Mister Jacob.

"'Simile' you mean, Mister Jacob. Well, it's all the same, and neither
here nor there in the matter of a letter. The fact is, gentlemen, I
wish you to know why I have sailed this ship to Ken's Archipelago, and
under what circumstances I shall sail her home again."

They pricked up their ears at this, Peter turning his cap nervously in
his hands and Mister Jacob being busy with his glasses as he loves to
be.

"Yes," I went on, "you have behaved like true shipmates and spoken
never a word which a man might not fairly speak. And now it's my duty
to be open with you. Well, to cut it short, my lads, I've sailed to the
Pacific because my mistress, Ruth Bellenden, asked me."

They had known as much, I imagine, from the start; but while Mister
Jacob pretended to be very much surprised, honest Peter raised his
glass and drank to Mistress Ruth's good health.

"God bless her," he said, "and may the day come when I ship along
o' such a one again. Aye, you would have come out for her sake,
captain--no other, I'm sure!"

"She being Ruth Bellenden no longer, but the wife of a gentleman with a
name none but a foreigner can spell," added Mister Jacob; and then he
went on: "Well, you surprise me very much, captain--very much indeed.
Matrimony is a choppy sea and queer things swim in it. But this--this I
had not looked to hear."

I knew that this was only Mister Jacob's way, and continued my story.

"It was a promise to her upon her wedding day. Ten thousand pounds she
left with her lawyers for this very purpose. 'My husband has strange
ideas; I may not share them,' were her words to me. 'If his yacht
should not be at the islands when I wish to visit Europe again, I
should like you to find me a vessel in its place. I trust you, Jasper
Begg,' she said; 'you will sail for Ken's Archipelago twelve months
from today, and you will come to my house there, as you used to do in
the old time, for orders. Perhaps I shall send you home again, perhaps
I may like to have a yacht of my own once more. Who knows? I am quite
alone in the world,' she said, laughing, 'though my brother is alive.
And the Pacific Ocean is a long way from London--