ee about it. What is there in these
storehouses?"

"A quantity of things, sir. They took away a great many with them, but
there must be ten times as much left. I heard them say they had the
cargoes of more than twenty ships here."

"That is satisfactory at any rate," the captain said. "Mr. Wylde, will
you just take a look round these storehouses and see what there is
worth taking away. You had better take my boat's crew as well as your
own to help you to turn things over. Are you quite sure, lad, that
there is no one beside yourselves on the island?"

"I can't say that, sir. The orders were for all hands to embark last
night, and so far as I know none of them were left behind except
Jacques Clery. We have been here for two days now and have seen no
one, so I do not think any one else can have been left."

"How did you get on on board the brig?" the captain asked. "I suppose
you cannot speak French?"

"I couldn't speak any French when I first was got on board, sir, but I
picked up a great deal on the voyage out. Jacques speaks English very
well. He was a prisoner in England for three years, and learned it
there, and it was that which caused him to speak to me directly he had
got me on board, for no one else understood me. So he set to work at
once to help me in my French, so that I could get along. The captain
was very kind too. He said that as I had been picked up in that way he
should not treat me as a prisoner; but he expected me to make myself
useful, and, of course, I did so. It was the only way of having a
comfortable life."

"Is this the only place the privateers had on shore here?" the captain
asked, looking round. "I only see one or two huts."

"The storekeepers lived in them, sir. They stopped behind to look
after things when the privateers were away. The men slept on board
their vessels, only landing to disembark the cargoes they had
captured, and for a drunken spree when they first returned. I am sure
they have no other place."

"So your brig only arrived here four days ago? I was puzzled in the
morning when I saw there were two brigs and a schooner when we had
only expected one brig. Of course your arrival accounts for that. What
was her name, and how many guns and men did she carry?"

"She was La Belle Marie of Dunkirk," Ralph replied. "She carried
fourteen guns, mostly eighteen-pounders, and a thirty-two-pounder on a
pivot. She had eighty hands at first, but eight of them went away in
the prize