of the island, the
favourite rendezvous of French privateers.

"You may suppose how surprised I was to hear that our new captain's name
was Flamank," continued Peter. "I at once told him that I knew you, and
how kind you had been to me, and soon found that he was your father. He
seemed never tired of asking me questions about you, and so of course I
gave him a full account of all that I thought would interest him. He,
in return, told me a great deal about himself. His ship had not been
wrecked, as was supposed, but had been captured by a French privateer,
on board which he had been taken. She was shortly afterwards wrecked on
an island in the Indian Ocean, when the Frenchmen attempted to reach the
shore in their boats, leaving the prisoners on board. The boats were
swamped, and all in them perished. Notwithstanding this, most of the
prisoners having built a raft, pushed off on it and shared their fate.
Captain Flamank and two others, seeing signs of the gale abating,
refused to join them, and the next day landed safely in a sheltered
cove, in the neighbourhood of which they took up their abode, having
brought on shore a large store of provisions and everything they
required from the wreck before she went to pieces. His two companions,
one of whom was wounded, died, and he was left alone for several years
till taken off by another French privateer. From what the captain said
I have an idea that he thinks of going back there if he has an
opportunity, as he had hidden away no small amount of treasure, taken
out of the wreck, which he didn't tell the French privateer's-men of,
for more reasons than one. First, he couldn't speak their lingo;
secondly, as bad weather was coming on, they were in a hurry to be off;
and as it was property which their countrymen had taken from English
vessels, he had no fancy to let them get it. But I've still another
strange thing to tell you. Soon after the captain was taken aboard the
privateer, she was chased by an English frigate during a heavy gale.
The privateer narrowly escaped shipwreck on the island they had left;
and it was the opinion of the Frenchmen, and the captain thinks they
were right, that the frigate was cast away. There can be no doubt that
she was the _Falcon_, and he thinks that some, if not all the crew, may
have escaped, and be still living on the island."

Jessie was making many eager inquiries on the subject, when Peter,
looking at his watch, jumped up, a