“I declare it beats anything I ever heard of,” said Featherweight. “I didn’t know you had so much pluck.”
“If you had seen me while I was doing it and after it was done, you wouldn’t give me so much credit,” replied Archie. “I don’t think I was ever before so badly frightened.”
Uncle Dick then went on to say that the war-steamer had returned to Hobart Town about ten o’clock on the morning of the previous day. He and Mr. Wilbur boarded her as soon as she touched the quay, and sought an interview with her commander, who put all their fears at rest by telling them that he had the convicts safe under guard, and that he had left the Stranger in the hands of those who seemed fully competent to take care of her. Uncle Dick was astonished beyond measure to learn how completely the boys had turned the tables upon their captors, and could hardly believe it until he was told that Waters himself had confirmed the story. The English commander further stated that he would have brought the yacht into port under convoy, had it not been for the obstinacy of her captain. Frank having hoisted his colors would not take them down, and as he had no right to do it, and his officers could not be expected to sail under a foreign flag, he had left the Stranger to take care of herself. Uncle Dick laughed when he came to this part of his story, and Frank knew by the stinging slap he received on the back that he had done just as the old sailor himself would have done under the same circumstances.
The schooner sailed into port about three o’clock that afternoon, and as soon as she was made fast to the quay, the three foremast hands were called into the cabin and paid off. Uncle Dick gave the same reasons for discharging them that he had given Frank, and the sailors accepted the situation without a word of complaint. They took a sorrowful leave of the captain and each of the Club, and the boys never saw them again after they went over the side with their bags and hammocks.
When the tide turned the Stranger left the harbor again, Uncle Dick on the quarter-deck and the Club acting as the crew, and in a few hours dropped anchor in her old berth near Mr. Wilbur’s house. The sailors and the herdsmen, who had gathered in a body on the bank to see her come in, greeted her with cheers, and when the cutter went ashore with Uncle Dick and the rest, the blue jackets crowded into it with an eagerness that did not escape the notice of their officers. They expected to find Brown and his two companions on board the schooner, and if they had found them there, it is probable that there would have been trouble directly. When they learned from the Doctor that the three men had been discharged at Hobart Town, a select party of six, among whom were Lucas and Barton, was appointed to go to the city, hunt them up, and give them a vigorous trouncing. But this fine scheme was defeated at the outset, for when the selected six went aft with their caps in their hands to ask their liberty, Mr. Baldwin informed them that not a man would be allowed to leave the vessel. The disappointed blue jackets growled lustily among themselves, but that did not help the matter.