"Yes, sir. The mate 'ere, 'e said 'e 'd rather not begin on it till you come aboard, sir."
"Quite right," Jack responded quietly. "Shall I read these papers?"
"Yes, if ye'll be so good, sir," Mr. Mainbrace said seriously, and not without a trace of regret in his jovial, weather-beaten face.
The captain seated himself with deliberation, and began to read; the Englishman applied himself afresh to his glass, and Taberman watched closely for a lead. Jerry was not clear what line was to be taken in this difficult situation, and was keenly anxious to back up the captain in any way possible. To his surprise Jack began first to smile, then to grin; from that to chuckle gleefully, and at last he broke out into full-throated laughter.
"By Jove!" he cried, striking his knee with the hand that held the papers. "But that is one on Uncle Randolph, and no mistake!"
The deputy inspector looked up with an expression of bewilderment, and Jerry felt that he was no more enlightened as to what Jack had in mind than was the guest.
"What is it?" Tab asked.
"Oh, we're run down at last! Think of our being nabbed at the last moment, when we've done all we wanted to with the yacht!" And he fell to laughing again, as if being caught red-handed in a pirated yacht were the merriest jest in the world.
Taberman was still completely bewildered, but he at least perceived that Jack was bound to carry off the matter with laughter; and by way of assisting as well as he could, he began also to laugh. He took the papers, and glanced at them enough to see that one was a letter from Lloyd's, containing a notification of the Merle's disappearance, with a description of the yacht and a specification of her captors; the other a warrant for search and apprehension. He followed Jack's lead, and if his efforts did not ring as true, he at least made more noise.
"That's rich!" he roared. "Ha! Ha! Ha!"