On the third evening, when the coper's boat returned from a trip around the trawlers, Charlie and Ping Wang were surprised to see that the passengers were two men who had been sent away early on the previous evening, because their money was spent.
'How can they have got money since last night?' Charlie said to Ping Wang.
'They've borrowed from their mates,' Ping Wang suggested, but they soon discovered that his explanation was not the right one. As the boat bobbed up and down by the side of the Lily, the men took from the bottom of it a fishing-net, and handed it up to the skipper, who was leaning over the gunwale.
'They have stolen that net,' Charlie remarked, guessing the truth, 'and the skipper is going to buy it from them.'
'It's a new one, skipper,' one of the thieves exclaimed, as he jumped on board.
'All right,' the receiver of stolen property answered, 'Go down below and enjoy yourselves.'
The two men descended at once into the saloon, while the skipper, after examining the net, dragged it aft, and removing a hatchway dropped the net into the hold. As he did so Charlie stepped forward, and looking down, saw, by the light of the wire-guarded lamp, that the hold was half full of nets, oars, buckets, ropes, cooking utensils, brass fittings, mops, oilies, and other things too numerous to mention.
'All that is stolen property, I suppose?' Charlie said to the skipper.
'Well, it wasn't stolen from you,' the skipper answered, 'so you have no cause to grumble.'
He closed the hatchway, and then turned to Charlie to abuse him more freely, but just as he began a seaman came up and told him that a mission ship had joined the fleet of trawlers.