"Right-o!" exclaimed Branscombe. "And the best of luck to you, old bird. Send 'em along to me care of the Company's agent at Vancouver."
At noon the Kittiwake and the Alvarado, having raised steam, weighed anchor and proceeded, escorted by a destroyer conveying the majority of the Donibristle's crew.
An hour later the Armadale and the rest of the squadron got under way, and soon the island—the secret base no longer—vanished beneath the horizon.
During the voyage Colonel Vivian mentioned to Alwyn that he had had enough of the sea to last him for a good many years, and that he proposed buying a property somewhere in the neighbourhood of Sydney.
"Quite a sound scheme, that, sir," observed Burgoyne.
"I think so," agreed the Colonel. "And, of course, we may see a good deal of you, especially if you get a berth on a liner calling at the principal Australian ports."
Three weeks after the Armadale's arrival at Port Jackson, Alwyn Burgoyne received his papers appointing him, as a full-blown lieutenant of the Royal Australian Navy, to the light cruiser Brisbane.
He received the official notification at 11 a.m. At once he proceeded to Penrith, where Colonel Vivian had purchased a small but picturesque house. At ten in the evening, looking absolutely pleased with himself and the world at large, Burgoyne was writing an order for a hundred choice Havanas to be sent per registered post to an address in far-off Vancouver.
Transcriber's Notes:
This book contains a number of misprints.
The following misprints have been corrected:
[the stacatto sound] —>
[the staccato sound]
[minature rainbows] —>
[miniature rainbows]
[was blockhouse on a] —>
[was a blockhouse on a]
[declared Branscombe sentitiously.] —>
[declared Branscombe sententiously.]
[Christmas dinne] —>
[Christmas dinner]
An inconsequent spelling is used for a shortened version of the word [suppose]: ['spose] and [s'pose]. Because they are equal in number of occurrence they have been left unchanged.
[when Robert was lost overboard]. Earlier this man was called "Andrew Roberts", therefore "Robert" is probably not correct, but this has not been corrected.
A few cases of punctuation errors were corrected, but are not mentioned here.