As there was no reason for staying in Bomobori, except to take on board the survivors of the Centurion’s crew, the Sea Gypsy steamed out of the harbor the next day, being saluted as she went, a compliment which she returned with her rapid-fire gun. Watching them from the wharf were two figures. One a tall agile Malay, who, with tears in his eyes, watched the yacht till she was hull-down on the horizon. It was Salloo. He had been well rewarded for his services which indeed, as Mr. Jukes said, were beyond price; but, as he watched the departure of his white friends, his thoughts were only with them and not with what were, to him, the riches of a lifetime.
The other watcher turned away with a sneer, jingling the money Mr. Jukes had left him in his pockets:
“So I’ve got to stick round this hole till I can get a steamer home,” grumbled Donald Judson, for, as our readers will have guessed, it was he. “If it hadn’t been for those boys I might have gone home in comfort on the yacht. Well, maybe some day I’ll get even with them.”
On the voyage home a stop was made at the Pamatou Islands; the glad news of the rescue had already been wirelessed home, and there was no great hurry except Mr. Jukes’ desire to get back to his business affairs after a romantic adventure he would never forget. As the Sea Gypsy dropped anchor in the well-known harbor, a fleet of canoes dashed out to welcome her, among them you may be sure those of Anai and his friend, who wept tears of joy at seeing their white “chums” once more. Mr. Jukes, his speculative instinct once more in the ascendent, bought a large quantity of pearls on which he subsequently realized a good profit.
“But we must hurry home,” he said one day. “My business will be going to rack and ruin without me and besides I’ve run out of dyspepsia pills. I only hope I didn’t ruin my digestion in the jungle.”
And here the adventures of the Ocean Wireless Boys on the Pacific must be brought to a close, except that it might be mentioned that pretty Helen Dennis, whose father’s ship was in port on the return of the Sea Gypsy, now wears a very pretty locket, set with South Sea pearls—the gift of Jack Ready. And so, till we meet them in the next volume of this series, we will wish the lads and their friends good-bye.
THE END
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