“What the deuce!” John Block exclaimed. “These tailless apes surely won’t stay for ever on the island!”
“Who can tell?” Mme. Zermatt answered. “If they have settled down in Rock Castle, they will never leave it. Oh! our poor dear house, prepared to receive all of you, my children, and now in their power!”
“Mother,” said Jenny, “I do not think they have destroyed anything at Rock Castle, for they have no interest in doing so. We shall find our home in good condition, and we shall resume our life together there, and with the help of God——”
“Yes, of God,” Frank added, “Who will not forsake us after having brought us all together again as by a miracle.”
“Ah! If only I could work a miracle!” Jack exclaimed.
“What would you do, Mr. Jack?” the boatswain enquired.
“To begin with,” the young man replied, “I would jolly well make these rascals decamp before they tried to land on this island, many of them as there are.”
“And then?” Harry Gould asked.
“Then, captain, if they continued to infest our island with their presence, I would make either the Unicorn or another ship show its colours at the entrance to Deliverance Bay.”
“But that would not be a miracle, Jack dear,” Jenny said; “that is an event which will surely come to pass. One of these days we shall hear the guns saluting the new English colony.”