arranged, was to remain at Ternate, Mary was to sail with her husband to
the South Seas.

But a terrible shock awaited them. As the _Ceres_ sailed up to her
anchorage before Mr. Leighton's house, his Chinese clerk came on board
with the news that the barque had foundered in a typhoon, and the brig
had been plundered and burnt by pirates within a few miles of Canton.
The unfortunate man gave one last appealing look at his daughter and
then fell on the deck at her feet He never spoke again, and died in a
few hours. When his affairs came to be settled up, it was found that,
after paying his debts, there was less than four hundred pounds left--a
sum little more than that which Corwell had managed to save out of his
own wages.

"Never mind, Jack," said Mary. "'Tis little enough, but yet 'tis enough.
And, Jack, let us go away from here. I should not care now to meet any
of the people father knew in his prosperity."

Cornell kissed his wife, and then they at once discussed the future.
Half an hour later he had bought the _Ceres_ from her captain (who was
also the owner), paid him his money and taken possession. Before the
week was out he had bought all the trade goods he could afford to pay
for, shipped a crew of Malays and Chinese, and, with Mary by his side,
watched Ternate sink astern as the _Ceres_ began her long voyage to the
South Seas.

After a three weeks' voyage along the northern and eastern shores of New
Guinea the _Ceres_ came to an anchor in the harbour which Cornell had
described to the Governor. The rest of his story, up to the time of his
arrival in Sydney Cove, the reader knows. *****

Steadily northward under cloudless skies the high-pooped, bluff-bowed
little vessel had sailed, favoured by leading winds nearly all the way,
for four-and-twenty days, when, on the morning of the twenty-fifth,
Corwell, who had been up aloft scanning the blue loom of a lofty island
which lay right ahead, descended to the deck with a smiling face.

"That is not only the island itself, Mary, but with this breeze we have
a clear run for the big village in the bay; I can see the spur on the
southern side quite clearly."

"I'm so glad, Jack, dear. And how you have worried and fumed for the
past three days!"

"I feared we had got too far to the westward, my girl," he said. Then
telling the mate to keep away a couple of points, he went below to pore
over the plan of the harbour, a copy of which had been taken by the
Governor,