r lad!" the admiral exclaimed, grasping his hand, "I gave you up
for lost many months ago, and we have all mourned for you deeply. Where
have you been? what have you been doing? what on earth have you done to
yourself? and where did you get this extraordinary craft?"

"I have been cast away on an island some twelve hundred miles to the west.
Only three of us were saved. We built this craft between us. One of my
comrades is dead, the other remains on the island, and I have sailed her
back single-handed. I think this, sir, will account for my somewhat
strange appearance."

"Fully, fully, lad. Well, you must tell me all about it afterwards. Why
did you not come direct in the boat to my ship instead of sending for me?"

"Because I was afraid of anyone else coming on board until you had sent
someone you could trust to take possession of her?"

"Why, bless me!" Lord Cochrane said with a laugh, "I should not have taken
her to be as valuable as all that. She is most creditable as a specimen of
the work of three shipwrecked men, and I should say from her appearance as
I rowed up to her that she was fairly fast. She might be worth a good deal
as an exhibition if you had her in the Thames, but she would not fetch
many hundred dollars here; though I have no doubt that, when properly
painted up and in trim, she would make an excellent little coaster."

"It is the cargo and not the ship, sir, that is valuable."

"What does it consist of?"

"It consists of gold, sir. There are five hundred thousand dollars stowed
in boxes."

The admiral looked at him in astonishment.

"Five hundred thousand dollars, Mr. Embleton! Are you in earnest?"

"Quite so, sir; the ship you sent me off to with twelve hands was laden
with military stores and money for the payment of the Spanish troops. I
was fortunate enough to get on board and capture her just before the storm
burst. When she was wrecked, on an island of whose name I am ignorant, her
stern, where the gold was stowed, was fortunately in only four feet of
water, and we had, therefore, no difficulty in getting at the boxes and
carrying them on shore, where we buried them until we had built this
craft."

The admiral ran down the companion into the cabin and saw the boxes lying
side by side along the length of the keel.

"I congratulate you heartily," he said to Stephen, "this is by far the
richest prize that has fallen into our hands. You did perfectly right in
sending for me, for, in f