“Would sixty pounds be too much to ask, Mr Leslie, taking everything into consideration?”
“What do you say, Simpson?” asked Leslie, with a smile.
“Sixty pounds ’d satisfy me,” answered the boatswain.
“Very well,” said Dick. “Now, this is what I will do with you both. It will be worth a thousand pounds to me to get these valuables of mine safely home, as I said, without attracting attention. If, therefore, you will ship for the run home with me, rendering me all the assistance necessary to take the Flora and her cargo safely to some port, to be hereafter decided upon, in the English Channel, I will give you my written bond to pay each of you five hundred pounds sterling within one calendar month of the date of our arrival. How will that suit you?”
“It will suit me better than any job I’ve ever yet dropped upon, and I say ‘done with you, sir, and many thanks,’” answered Nicholls, with enthusiasm.
“And you, Simpson?” demanded Dick.
“Good enough!” answered the boatswain, with his usual brevity.
“Very well, then; that is settled,” said Leslie. “I will draw up an agreement in triplicate at once, which we can all sign, each retaining a copy; and that will put the whole matter upon a thoroughly ship-shape and satisfactory basis all round.”
Dick prepared the agreement there and then, and having read over to the two seamen the first draft, and obtained their unqualified approval of it, he at once proceeded to make the two additional copies. All three were then duly signed, Flora also attaching her signature as a witness, and the transaction was thereupon completed.
“Now,” said Dick, “that bit of business being arranged, I should like to take the cutter round to a little cove at no great distance from the cave where my valuables are concealed, and get them aboard her at once, before her decks are hampered up with gear and what not; we will therefore get the catamaran under way, and tow her round. We can leave the catamaran in the cove also, and walk back by way of change. Moreover, it will afford us the opportunity to stretch our legs a bit; we shall not get very much more walking exercise now until we arrive in England.”