"Sham!" replied William W. Kolderup, who had never seemed in such a good humour before. "The Dream was quietly sunk by means of her water ballast, according to the instructions I had given Turcott. You thought she sank for good, but when the captain saw that you and Tartlet had got safely to land he brought her up and steamed away. Three days later he got back to San Francisco, and he it is who has brought us to Spencer Island on the date we fixed!"
"Then none of the crew perished in the wreck?"
"None—unless it was the unhappy Chinaman who hid himself away on board and could not be found!"
"But the canoe?"
"Sham! The canoe was of my own make."
"But the savages?"
"Sham! The savages whom luckily you did not shoot!"
"But Carefinotu?"
"Sham! Carefinotu was my faithful Jup Brass, who played his part of Friday marvellously well, as I see."