"Then I saw for the first time that both the vessels flew English colours, and when we had made ourselves known we found out that they were the frigate Antelope and the buccaneering craft Secret, which had been captured the day before. We won't be troubled with those rascals again, at all events, for the Antelope sank the two that escaped from here and, as I said, took the third. But----"
"Sail, ho!"
"Whither away?" shouted the bos'n, our conversation terminating abruptly with the interruption.
Gliding round the end of the reef by a channel of which we ourselves were ignorant came a graceful frigate, the setting sun gleaming on her brown canvas and her black-and-yellow sides, while the red cross of St. George streamed proudly in the breeze.
Smartly handled, she worked her way in through the narrow, land-locked entrance; then luffing up into the wind, she dropped anchor within a cable's length of the Golden Hope.
"What think ye of her, gentlemen?" asked Captain Craddock, with justifiable pride. "I'll warrant she's the smartest 40-gun frigate afloat, even though I, her captain, say it."
No one would have thought, to see the gallant vessel, that she had been in action with three buccaneers but two or three days ago. Her ports, picked out in vermilion, had been repainted, while every spar and rope was intact. Yet, on closer inspection, a number of neatly plugged holes in her sheering sides showed how fierce had been the engagement.
"We'll lie here for a few days," continued Captain Craddock, as his barge came alongside to take him back to the frigate. "If we can be of service to you in the matter of spare spars, cordage, or gear, you have but to say so."
Captain Craddock was as good as his word, and, thanks to his assistance, not only were our wounded carefully tended by the chirurgeon of the frigate, but the work of refitting the Golden Hope and the Neptune proceeded far more rapidly than we had expected, so that when the Antelope weighed and set sail for Port Royal, our two ships looked little the worse for the severe ordeal they had undergone.
Meanwhile Captain Jeremy continued to progress favourably, yet slowly. In this interval we could do nothing towards recovering the Madre treasure, so it is little wonder that time hung heavily on our hands.