On this I assured Mr. Kidd that I was sorry for their misfortune, and would gladly find them food and lodging, and whatever else they might require, but as for getting away, I did not see how that was possible, unless by sea, and in their own dinghy.

“We are very grateful for your kindness, sir; but I don’t think we should much like to make another voyage in the dinghy.”

“She ain’t seaworthy,” growled Yawl, “you’ve to bale all the time, and if it came on to blow she’d turn turtle in half a minute.”

“May be some vessel will be touching here, sir,” suggested Kidd.

“Vessels never do touch here, except to be dashed in pieces against the rocks.”

“Well, I suppose we shall have to wait till a chance happens out.  This seems a nice place, and we are in no hurry, if you aren’t.”

So the two castaways became my guests; and if they waited to be taken off by a passing ship they were likely to remain my guests as long as they lived.

For a few days they rambled about the place with their hands in their pockets and cigars (with which I supplied them liberally) in their mouths.  But after a while time began to hang heavy on their hands, and one day they came to me with a proposal.

“We are tired of doing nothing, Mr. Fortescue,” said Kidd.

“It is the hardest work I ever put my hand to, and not a grog-shop in the place,” interposed Yawl.

“Hold your jaw, Bill, and let me say my say out.  We are tired of doing nothing, and if you like we will build you a sloop.”

“A sloop!  To go away in, I suppose?”

“That is as you please, sir.  Anyhow, a sloop, say of fifteen or twenty tons, would be very useful.  You might take a sail with your lady now and again, and explore the coast.  Yawl has been both ship’s carpenter and bo’son—­he’ll boss the job; and I’m a very fair amateur cabinet-maker.  If you want anything in that line doing at your house, sir, I shall be glad to do it for you.”

The project pleased me; an occasional cruise would be an agreeable diversion, and I assented to Kidd’s proposal without hesitation.  There was as much wreckage lying on the cliff as would build a man-of-war, and a small cove at the foot of the oasis where the sloop could lie safely at anchor.

So the work was taken in hand, some of my own people helping, and after several months’ labor the Angela, as I proposed to call her, was launched.  She had a comfortable little cabin and so soon as she was masted and rigged would be ready for sea.

In the mean time I asked Kidd to superintend some alterations I was making at Alta Vista, and among other things construct larger cabinets for my mineral and entomological specimens.  He did the work quite to my satisfaction, but before it was well finished I made a portentous discovery—­several of my diamonds were missing.  There could be no doubt about it, for I knew the number to a nicety, and had counted them over and over again.  Neither could there be any doubt that Kidd was the thief.  Besides my wife, myself, and one or two of our servants, no one else had been in the room; and our own people would not have taken the trouble to pick up a diamond from the ground, much less steal one from my house.