I approached him in my most respectful manner.
"Here, sir, is the Reverend Eccleston. He is the gentleman for whom the sacks are intended, and I'm the 'cheeky rascal' who shipped them. Your coxswain will recognize Mustapha here as the lad who stowed them in your cutter. There wasn't much need of shipping the curios after all, since my schooner arrived here almost as quickly as your ship."
He looked at me as if he wanted to pour out a flood of oaths. Then his gaze wandered over the rector's garb and he grew less surly.
"It's lucky for you, sir," he said to my guardian, "that we didn't pitch those sacks overboard! I like this cub's cheek—sending freight aboard without even saying, 'By your leave!' If the bags hadn't been addressed to a parson, overboard they'd have gone!"
"Your forbearance is much appreciated," said the rector. "The boy, I believe, was in a trying situation."
I took out a roll of banknotes.
"We'll pay you in full for all the bother you've been put to. You really saved this stuff from falling into the hands of the Turk, Joseph Bashaw. Yet there was another skipper who wanted in the worst way to carry those bags! In fact, he inquired for The Morning Star at several South Atlantic ports. I think you came in sight of him. But we're none the less grateful to you, sir!"
He snatched from me a pound note. "Always glad to serve the Church," he said civilly to the rector. "By the way, my men said there appeared to be metal ornaments in the sacks—candlesticks for worship, I suppose?"
The rector, at a loss for a reply, stared at the sacks.
"Something of that sort! They will be very useful to the Church," I answered, shouldering one. Mustapha followed suit with another, and the rector, good man, dragged the third sack to a wagon I had hired. With a load of worry removed from Mustapha and myself, we drove homeward. I heard afterwards that The Morning Star, though then a freighter for the Government, was a converted privateer and had even been suspected of piracy while in Uncle Sam's employ. Her men had probably captured and sunk many a ship without obtaining loot half as valuable as these, our riches, which they so carelessly carried.