"What will you do if we find the Tycoon?" inquired Walter.
"I shall probably be able to present the matter to her captain in such a way that he will be willing to release Frank and make him some amends for what he has done—I think I shall be able to do so," said the old sailor, with a look in his eye that spoke volumes. "But if I should fail, he will be arrested as soon as he comes back here."
This was all Uncle Dick had to say, and it afforded the boys very little satisfaction. They had confidently expected that Frank would be restored to them when they reached the Sandwich Islands, and this was a sore disappointment. Where was he now? Where was he while the Tycoon was lying in the harbor of Honolulu? What was the reason he had not done as he advised the deserter to do—insisted on seeing the American consul? The boys could only speculate upon these points, and they had ample leisure to do it—almost six weeks. During that time every ship they could come up with was spoken, but the Tycoon was not among them, and neither could they gain any information concerning her. The boys were getting discouraged and very down-hearted, and had it not been for Uncle Dick there is no telling how they would have lived through it.
One night the officer of the deck reported that there was a whaler a few miles distant "trying out"—that is, rendering out the oil of a whale she had recently captured. The Stranger's bow was at once pointed toward her, and at sunrise the two vessels were within speaking distance.
"Now just listen to me a minute and I'll tell you what's a fact," said Perk, who with the rest of the Club stood in the waist, attentively regarding the ship as she came toward them carrying a huge bone in her teeth, "there's something about that craft that looks familiar."
"I was just thinking so myself," said Eugene.
He glanced toward Uncle Dick, who, during the last quarter of an hour had kept his glass levelled at the ship, and edged away toward the officer of the deck. "It can't be that that is the vessel we're looking for, is it, Mr. Baldwin?" said he.
"If it isn't her, it's her sister," replied the officer, with some excitement.
Before Eugene could carry this news to his companions the ship backed her main topsail, and as Uncle Dick, with an exclamation of astonishment that had a good deal of meaning in it, seized his trumpet, her captain appeared upon her bulwarks. The boys, through their glasses, had a plain view of him, and the general verdict was that he was a rough-looking fellow—one who, judging by his appearance, was capable of almost anything.