"Let him drown," he said.
By the time we reached the Sea Queen, some of the mutineers, who had started running when they saw us, had got to the water's edge opposite to us, and one or two of them plunged in. In the distance, the others were pursuing Pye and his boat.
Legrand, meanwhile, had taken the wheel, and Ellison set about the sails. I did what I could to help, and it was not many minutes ere we had the topsails going. Under that pressure the yacht began to walk slowly. Seeing this, the mutineers on the shore raised a howl, and two more jumped in to join the swimmers, who were now halfway to us. Legrand cried out an order, and Ellison had the jib-sail set, and the Sea Queen quickened her pace under the brisk breeze. The swimming mutineers dropped behind. There must have been half a dozen of them in the water, and now we saw that they had given up the attempt to reach us in that way and had fallen back on a new idea. They turned aside to intercept Pye.
The little lawyer's clerk was paddling for life, and knew it, but he made no way. The yacht moved faster, and he sent up to heaven a dreadful scream that tingled in my ears. I made a step towards Legrand, but he merely gave one glance backward towards the boat and then fixed his gaze on the wide horizon of interminable sea, as though he thus turned his back forever on Hurricane Island and all there. He pulled the spokes of the wheel, and the Sea Queen, breasting the foam-heads, began to leap. We were moving at a brisk pace.
I looked back to the unhappy man. He had fallen away now, but still laboured at his oars. The swimmers could not have been more than twenty yards from him. Just then Alix's voice was low with agitation in my ears.
"Yvonne? Where is Yvonne?"
I turned to her and took her hand. "She will need no further care of yours, sweetheart," I said. "She has played her last tragedy—a tragedy she thought destined for a comedy."
Alix, looking at me, sighed, and ere she could say more Lane intervened in huge excitement.
"Good heavens, Phillimore! the treasure's all in my safes again. By crikey, is it all a dream?"
"Yes," I answered, looking at Alix, "all a bad nightmare."