"I hope that's understood," said the captain. "But I can't bear to see a
fine lad ruined for a bit of squeamishness. Were he thirty he might go
hang; but nineteen--Good Lord! one must have a little mercy."

"Where would any of us be now, sir," said Mr. Francis, "if we had each
of us received full measure for a boyish error?"

"I know I was a rotten bad egg myself," said Captain Hadow.

"If I may say it without offense, sir," said Mr. Francis, "I think you
are taking a very noble course in respect to this unfortunate lad."

"Of course, I don't want you to think I justify desertion," said Hadow
quickly, not ill pleased at the compliment. "Gad, sir, it's a shocking
thing; bar actual cowardice, I positively know nothing worse. Were Jack
my son, I'd rather see him stretched dead at my feet. I tell you, Mr.
Francis, that when I first heard the news I was stunned; I felt myself
trembling; the dishonor, the infamy of it struck me here." Captain Hadow
laid his hand on his heart.

Mr. Francis nodded a silent assent.

"But we'll save him!" cried the captain. "We won't permit this ugly
business to blast his life."

"You may count, Captain Hadow, on our most loyal and hearty support,"
said Mr. Francis.

"Thank you," said the captain; "and you will pass the word along that
the subject is one not to be discussed."

"Quite so, sir," said the first lieutenant.

"Not a word!" exclaimed the captain; "and of course you will cancel the
reward before we sail. You might even coach old George a bit about the
hill tribes. But, of course, not a whisper that we're ever coming
back."

"No, sir," said Mr. Francis.

"That must go no farther than you and me," said Hadow.

"It shall not, sir," returned the first lieutenant.

"We shall sail to-night at the turn of the tide," said the captain.

"Very good, sir," said Mr. Francis.

It was not nine months--it was fifteen, and some days to spare--before
the _Dauntless_ again raised the peak of Borabora and backed her
mainyard off the settlement. In the course of that eventful year and a
quarter she had zigzagged the whole chart of the eastern Pacific; and
from French Frigate Shoals to Pitcairn, from Diamond Head to Little
Rapa, she had sounded and plotted reefs innumerable, and had covered,
with a searching persistency, vast areas of blue water dotted with e.
d.'s and p. d.'s.[1] She had twice taken the ground, once so hard and
fast that she had shifted her guns and lightered a hundred