"She may not have started!" cried Glenarvan, who would not despair. "Perhaps we have arrived before her!"
Captain Mangles shook his head. He knew Tom Austin; his mate would never have delayed so long to execute an order.
"I will know what this means," said Glenarvan. "Certainty is better than doubt."
THE LAST HOPE.
Fifteen minutes later a telegram was sent to the ship-brokers of Melbourne, and the travelers repaired to the Victoria Hotel. Not long after an answer was delivered to Lord Glenarvan. It read as follows:
"Lord Glenarvan,
Eden, Twofold Bay.
"Duncan started on the 18th instant for some unknown destination."
The dispatch fell from Glenarvan's hands. There was no more doubt! The honest Scotch yacht, in Ben Joyce's hands, had become a pirate-vessel!
Thus ended their search in Australia, begun under such favorable auspices. The traces of Captain Grant and his shipwrecked sailors seemed irrecoverably lost. This failure had cost the lives of an entire crew. Lord Glenarvan was crushed by the blow, and this courageous searcher, whom the leagued elements had failed to deter, was now baffled by the malice of men.