CHAPTER XX HOME SURPRISES
"Oh! dream of joy! Is this indeed
The lighthouse top I see?
Is this the hill? Is this the kirk?
Is this mine own countree?"
The owners of the Hawk could not be found. The authorities decided that we had the right to offer her for sale and to divide the money among ourselves in proportions according to rank. Her value was placed at eighteen thousand dollars—but MacWilliams, backed by a group of merchants, purchased the ship for fifteen thousand dollars. He had not, canny Scot, returned from Barbary with empty pockets. He bought the Hawk at auction, and was able to obtain it at a low price because other merchants, when they saw his eagerness to obtain possession of her, refrained from bidding.
I was eager to take passage for America, and MacWilliams, to accommodate me, hurried the sale along so that Mustapha and myself could have our share. With three hundred dollars apiece in our possession, we bade him an affectionate farewell.
He changed the name of the Hawk to the Dove, and vowed to me that she should be used only on honorable missions.