"Oh, Alice! What a thing to say!"
"I don't care! I believe it!"
All this while preparations had been under way aboard the steamer to lower a small boat, but there seemed to be some delay.
Meanwhile Jack Jepson remained as lookout on the Mary Ellen, though there was no need of him there, for the schooner was now merely drifting, with sails aback, and the steamer, too, was at the call of the wind and currents.
"Come on, mate!" hoarsely whispered a sailor to Jack. "Slip below, mate, and we'll hide you. If they try to take you, we'll stand 'em off. I don't like the Britishers anyhow. I was shanghaied into one of their lime-juicers once, an' I never forgot it! Slip below!"
"No, I'll take my medicine!" said Jack grimly. "Might as well get it done with. This thing has been hangin' over my head a number of years now, and I'll be glad to hear the last of it. It's a terrible thing for an innocent man."
"Perhaps some way may be found for clearing you," suggested Alice. "I'll speak to my father. He knows some prominent lawyers in New York, and they will induce the government to take up your case. Go quietly, Jack, and we'll do all we can for you."
"Oh, I shan't raise a row, Miss, never fear. No good'd come of that, and it would only make trouble. I'll go quietly enough."
"Ha! What is going on?" asked Mr. DeVere, who had been down below. "Has anything happened?"
Alice and Ruth tried to tell him at once, the former eager to enlist his sympathies in Jack's cause. Mr. DeVere promised readily enough.