“Have you done any fighting since you were on board the privateer?” the captain asked sternly.

“No, sir.  We have only exchanged shots with one ship since we sailed.  She fired one broadside and the privateer drew off a good deal damaged.  Another was surprised by night, but I took no part in it.  I don’t know what she was laden with or what was her name.”

“Well, lad, your story sounds truthful, and will, of course, be inquired into when we get to England.  As to this man, he is of course a prisoner.”

“I hope not, sir,” Ralph pleaded.  “He has not been taken with arms in his hands, and is, in fact, a castaway mariner.”

The captain’s face relaxed into a smile.  “I see you are a sort of sea lawyer.  Well, we shall see about it.  What is there in these storehouses?”

“A quantity of things, sir.  They took away a great many with them, but there must be ten times as much left.  I heard them say they had the cargoes of more than twenty ships here.”

“That is satisfactory at any rate,” the captain said.  “Mr. Wylde, will you just take a look round these storehouses and see what there is worth taking away.  You had better take my boat’s crew as well as your own to help you to turn things over.  Are you quite sure, lad, that there is no one beside yourselves on the island?”

“I can’t say that, sir.  The orders were for all hands to embark last night, and so far as I know none of them were left behind except Jacques Clery.  We have been here for two days now and have seen no one, so I do not think any one else can have been left.”

“How did you get on on board the brig?” the captain asked.  “I suppose you cannot speak French?”

“I couldn’t speak any French when I first was got on board, sir, but I picked up a great deal on the voyage out.  Jacques speaks English very well.  He was a prisoner in England for three years, and learned it there, and it was that which caused him to speak to me directly he had got me on board, for no one else understood me.  So he set to work at once to help me in my French, so that I could get along.  The captain was very kind too.  He said that as I had been picked up in that way he should not treat me as a prisoner; but he expected me to make myself useful, and, of course, I did so.  It was the only way of having a comfortable life.”

“Is this the only place the privateers had on shore here?” the captain asked, looking round.  “I only see one or two huts.”

“The storekeepers lived in them, sir.  They stopped behind to look after things when the privateers were away.  The men slept on board their vessels, only landing to disembark the cargoes they had captured, and for a drunken spree when they first returned.  I am sure they have no other place.”

“So your brig only arrived here four days ago?  I was puzzled in the morning when I saw there were two brigs and a schooner when we had only expected one brig.  Of course your arrival accounts for that.  What was her name, and how many guns and men did she carry?”