ad best be taken, if the search for the men of the phantom
turned out unavailing. George was brooding over the old wrong he
had suffered, and longing to avenge that and the present one.

"Thank God, the night is over," Frank said at last; "and I have
thoroughly tired myself. I have thought until I am stupid. Now I
will lie down on one of the sofas, and perhaps I may forget it all
for a few hours."

Sleep, however, did not come to him, and at seven o'clock he was on
deck again.

"The men went ashore at six, sir," the skipper said. "I expect they
will be back again before long."

Ten minutes later the dinghy came out between two yachts ahead.

"Rawlins is not on board," the skipper said, as they came close. "I
told him to send off the instant they got any news whatever. That
is Simpson in the stern."

"Well, Simpson, what news?" Frank asked as she rowed alongside.

"Well, sir, we have found out as how all the Phantom's crew are
ashore. Some of the chaps told us that they came back a fortnight
ago, the crew having been paid off. Rawlins said that I'd better
come off and tell you that. He has gone off to look one of them up,
and bring him off in a shore boat. He knows where he lives, and I
expect we shall have him alongside in a few minutes."

"Do you think that is good news or bad, sir?" George Lechmere
asked.

"I think that it is bad rather than good," Frank said. "Before, it
seemed to me that, whatever the craft was in which she was carried
away, she would probably be transferred to the Phantom, which might
be lying in Portland or in Dover, or be cruising outside the
island, and if I had heard nothing of the Phantom I should have
searched for her. However, I suppose that the scoundrel thought
that he could not trust a crew of Cowes men to take part in a
business like this. But we shall know more when Rawlins comes off."

In half an hour the shore boat came alongside with Rawlins and a
sailor with a Phantom jersey on.

"So you have all been paid off, my lad?" Frank said to the sailor
as he stepped on deck.

"Yes sir. It all came sudden like. We had expected that she would
be out for another month, at least. However, as each man got a
month's pay, we had nothing to grumble about; although it did seem
strange that even the skipper should not have had a hint of what
Mr. Carthew intended, till he called him into his cabin and paid
him his money."

"And where is she laid up?"

"Well, sir, she is at Ostend.