r Edgar on the
hotel steps, he said--

"Now, Saint Leger, we are in no hurry to start for a month or two, you
know; and we are all quite as eager as ever we were to see the end of
this adventure of yours; so if you should succeed in scraping together a
crew within, say, the next two months, you may reckon upon us as
passengers again--that is, if you would care to have us."

"You are more than kind, Sir Edgar," said I, "and I should be delighted
to have you; but you appear to have forgotten that my plans include
another visit to China before I point the barque's nose for home, even
should I succeed in securing the treasure."

"That does not matter a bit, my dear fellow," he laughed. "As I have
already told you, we are in no hurry whatever; and, to tell you the
truth, Lady Emily seems to enjoy so much better health when at sea than
she does when on shore, that I should welcome any excuse plausible
enough to keep her on shipboard for two or three months longer. So, if
you should succeed in picking up a crew, let me know at once."

It really seemed as though the reappearance of the Desmonds upon the
scene had brought good fortune to me; for when I reached the ship and
went on board, Forbes met me at the gangway with quite an unwonted
expression of delight upon his face, and said--

"I am glad you have come on board so early, sir; for I have actually had
a gang of eleven men alongside, who say they are looking for berths."

"Eleven men! _looking for berths_!" I ejaculated, scarcely crediting my
ears. "Where are they?"

"They went off up-town again, unfortunately, when I told them you were
not on board," replied Forbes. "But I have the address of the
boarding-house at which they are staying, and I told them I would let
them know when you could see them."

"My dear fellow," I exclaimed, "be off at once, and say that I shall be
on board for the remainder of the day, and can see them at any time.
Or, stay--perhaps I had better look in upon them myself; I can manage to
drop in upon them in a casual sort of way, that will have less
appearance of eagerness and anxiety than would sending especially for
them. What did they look like?"

"Well," admitted Forbes, "they _looked_ as rowdy a set of ruffians as I
ever wish to set eyes on; but their manners and mode of speaking were
those of fairly decent, respectable men. They said that they had been
at the gold-fields for the last seven months, and had scarcely made
enoug