."

"Do you know whether she has gone off straight for France or whether
she is going to remain here?"

"Prom what I gathered from the men, sir, I believe the other two
privateers are going straight home. They loaded up from the
storehouses, taking, of course, the most valuable stuff. There was a
great deal of copper, but what the rest was I do not know. Our brig
was loaded up too, but I believe her intention was to transfer her
cargo into the first prize she took and send it to France. I do not
know whether she was going to cruise about here for a time, but I
should rather think that now that her consorts have gone and this
place been discovered she will not stay here, for she never intended
to cruise in these waters long. I know that her destination was the
Indian Ocean, and she intended to capture Indiamen on their way out or
home."

"In that case our expedition has been more satisfactory than I
expected," the captain said. "We shall have discovered and destroyed
their depot here, captured anyhow some valuable stuff, and caused the
two privateers that we have been hunting for so long to leave the
islands, to say nothing of this brig of yours, of which we had not
heard. Well, Mr. Wylde, what is your report?"

"It will take a long time to go through the whole sir, but I should
say that we have taken a most valuable prize. Part of the goods
consist of produce of these parts--puncheons of rum and hogsheads of
sugar in any number. Then I see they have left a good many tons of
copper behind them; overlooked them, I suppose, in the hurry of
loading. A considerable portion of the stores consist of home
produce--cottons, cloths, silks, furniture, musical instruments,
mirrors, and, in fact, goods of all kinds."

"That is most satisfactory, Mr. Wylde, and we sha'n't have had our
trouble for nothing. Ah! here come the other boats."

As he spoke the pinnaces, long-boats, and cutters of the two ships of
war dashed into the harbor, and in a minute or two reached the
landing-place.

"So they gave you the slip as well as me, Chambers?" Captain Wilson
said.

"Confound them, yes. I was within about four miles of them at sunset,
but they both gave me the slip in the dark."

"Mine fairly outsailed me," Captain Wilson said. "I am afraid we have
made rather a mess of the affair; though we acted for the best, and I
don't see how we could have done otherwise. However. I have learned
that the brig and the schooner we have been ch