'I am certain of it,' the revenue officer replied, 'and that makes me all the more pleased. Now, I must be off.'
With that he went on deck, and Charlie and Ping Wang followed him. They were now in the Humber, creating some excitement among the vessels in the river. All hands mustered on every ship to see the coper, and frequently, when the nature of the boat was known, loud cheers were given for the captor.
The news of the capture had reached Grimsby before the two boats arrived, and, consequently, there was a large crowd waiting to see the prisoners brought in. Among the people was the former cook of the Sparrow-hawk, whose astonishment at beholding Charlie and Ping Wang on a revenue cutter highly amused his two acquaintances. Charlie nodded to him, but there was no opportunity to settle up with him just then, as the prisoners were immediately marched off to the magistrate.
To the revenue officials' surprise, the coper skipper pleaded guilty to selling spirits and tobacco in British waters. He did so because, seeing Charlie and Ping Wang in court, he knew that they would give evidence against him. On his pleading guilty, the stock-in-trade, together with the stolen property which he had purchased, was confiscated. As Charlie and Ping Wang came out of the court they found the bow-legged cook waiting for them, anxious to get the balance of money due to him from Charlie, and also to hear how he had fared on the Sparrow-hawk. They went to the Fisherman's Home, and there the cook was paid.
Charlie then related, in as few words as possible, all that had happened to him from the time he went aboard the Sparrow-hawk, and concluded by asking the bow-legged cook not to mention to Skipper Drummond, if he met him during the next few days, that he had seen him and Ping Wang.
Charlie and Ping Wang shook hands with the cook and left him.
'Now,' Charlie said, 'we must go to a cheap tailor's. I think that I have enough money to buy a ready-made suit for each of us.'
'Perhaps the tailor will give us something for the coper's things,' Ping Wang remarked. 'You paid enough for them.'
'I did, and if I tell a tailor, or any one else, what I gave for them, I shall be thought a madman.'
Half-a-crown was the value which the Grimsby tailor placed upon the clothes which Charlie and Ping Wang were wearing. The new clothes which they purchased were rather loud in pattern, and by no means a good fit, but they were cheap, and a great improvement on the things which they had taken off.