“I have been doing some trading, captain,” he whispered to him. “It is white plunder; and I have no doubt that a ship has been surprised and her crew massacred somewhere near here. I have bought the chronometers and quadrants, and they have certainly not been in the water; also the contents of a sea-chest, which I divided among the men. There were no papers of any kind, but from the appearance of the [pg 50]chronometers, I should say that they cannot have been here long.”
The captain nodded.
“We will talk it over when we get on board, Steve. We will be off at once, for these fellows are beginning to get drunk with this beastly liquor of theirs, and it is best that we should get out of the place before there is any excuse for a quarrel.”
A few minutes later they took their seats in the boat and rowed off to the ship.
CHAPTER III.
A CYCLONE.
As soon as they arrived on board, Captain Pinder examined the chronometers and pronounced them to be excellent ones.
“I would not wind them up until it is Greenwich time as they now stand, and would then compare them with our own.”
“Of course, sir,” Stephen said, “I have bought these not for myself but for the ship.”