ou have no option in the matter."

"No, not a bit o' poption in it wotiver; though wot that means I ain't
rightly sure," said Dick Price.

"Perhaps I ought to exercise my parental authority over you, Henry,"
said Gascoyne, "and _command_ you to steer back to Sandy Cove."

"But we wouldn't let him, Mister Pirate," said Dick Price, who, now that
his difficult duties were over, was preparing to solace himself with a
pipe; an example that was immediately followed by Bumpus, who backed his
friend by adding:

"No more we would."

"Nay, then, if Henry joins me," said Gascoyne, "I think that we two will
not have a bad chance against you three."

"Come, that's good: so _I_ count for nothing!" exclaimed Corrie.

"Ha! stick up, lad," observed Bumpus. "The niggers wot you pitched into
at the mouth o' yon cave didn't think that--eh! didn't they not?"

"Well, well; if Corrie sides with you, I feel that my wisest course is
to submit. And now, Henry," said Gascoyne, resuming his wonted gravity
of tone and demeanor, "sit down here and let me know where we are going,
and what you mean to do. It is natural that I should feel curious on
these points, even although I _have_ perfect confidence in you all."

Henry obeyed, and their voices sank into low tones as they mingled in
earnest converse about their future plans.

Thus did Gascoyne, with his family and friends, leave Sandy Cove in the
dead of that dark night, and sail away over the wide waste of the great
Pacific Ocean.

* * * * *

Reader, our tale is nearly told. Like a picture it contains but a small
portion of the career of those who have so long engaged your attention,
and, I would fain hope, your sympathy. The life of man may be
comprehensively epitomized almost to a point, or expanded out _ad
infinitum_. He was born, he died, is its lowest term. Its highest is not
definable.

Innumerable tomes, of encyclopedic dimensions, could not contain, much
less exhaust, an account of all that was said and done, and all that
might be said about what was said and done, by our _ci-devant_
sandal-wood trader and his friends. Yet there are main points, amid the
little details of their career, which it would be unpardonable to pass
over in silence. To these we shall briefly refer before letting the
curtain fall.

There is a distant isle of the sea, a beautiful spot, an oceanic gem,
which has been reclaimed by the word of God from those regions that h