We got back safe aboard the Moonshine all right, setting sail from the Piraeus next day; but it was a good trick of the brigand chief, wasn’t it—though I can’t say much for his gratitude after all, spite of those magnificent presents, which there was little reason to wonder at his offering us, considering the easy manner in which he got his money?
The cut in Rollo’s neck healed soon, and he is now as right as ever he was, excepting a slight scar which tells where the stiletto or dagger went, and he wears still the collar of gold that Stephanos Pericles presented him with. As for the rest of our party, all of us got home safe with the Moonshine, which is now fitting out at Ryde for the coming regatta, where I hope she’ll come off as successfully in carrying off prizes as “THE GREEK BANDIT.”
Chapter Four.
Jim Newman’s Yarn: Or, A Sight of the Sea Serpent.
“Was you ever up the Niger, sir?”
“Why, of course not, Jim! you know that I’ve never been on the African station, or any other for that matter. But why do you ask the question?”
“Don’t know ’xactly, sir. P’raps that blessed sea-fog reminds me of it, somehow or other—though there’s little likeness, as far as that goes, between the west coast and Portsmouth, is there, sir?”
“I don’t suppose there is,” I said; “but what puts the Niger, of all places in the world, in your head at the present moment?”