At Shanghai Uncle Naboth was waiting for us, and the dear old fellow was overjoyed at our safe return.
“Got any treasure?” he asked.
We pointed to the sealed packing-cases which the porters were laboriously unloading.
“There’s enough there, Uncle,” I whispered, “to make us all rich as Rockefeller—if we can get it safe aboard the Seagull.”
“Why, we’ll hire a special steamer to transport it to Woosung,” he declared; and knowing Mr. Perkins as we did we were all relieved when the treasure had been turned over to his care.
We met Dr. Gaylord in Shanghai, and he was still “out of a job.” He seemed amazed that we had returned safely from our adventure and asked us a thousand questions which we answered discreetly, without telling him too much. But he was a good-hearted old fellow, and had been of much service to us before his courage had failed him and led him to desert our cause. Remembering this, I placed a small packet in his hands when we parted at the wharf and asked him not to open it until after we had gone.
I hope it helped the good doctor to buy that farm in England which he so much desired; for although the packet merely contained what Archie described as “some of the loose plunder that was in our pockets,” it ought to have been sufficient to set the doctor up for life.
Fortunately there are no customs officials at the port of Woosung, and our chartered steamer puffed directly to the side of the Seagull and loaded us and our treasure on our own craft.
We received a joyful welcome from my father and the officers and crew, you may be sure, and before we had told all of our story we were well out at sea and were homeward bound.
I have often wondered if our visits to the Ancestral Halls of the House of Kai have ever been discovered, or the treasure we abstracted at the instance of the Prince ever missed.