It was several days afterward, when the captives had become somewhat accustomed to their surroundings, that Captain Gooding found he and his men were mixed in their reckoning.

“It is a question among us whether this is Thursday or Friday,” said he, addressing Irons; “can you settle it for us?”

The Englishman looked at the captain in an odd way and replied: 

“I haven’t the remotest idea of what day in the week it is, nor what is the month.  It seems four years ago that I was left here, but I am not sure of it.  Will you please give me the year and month?”

“This is April, 1889.”

The Englishman bent his head for a few minutes in deep thought.  He was recalling the past, with its singular incidents of his career.  When he looked up he said: 

“Yes; it is four years and more since I was abandoned, and if you stay that long you will be content to remain all your lives.”

The captain shook his head, and his eyes were dimmed as he replied: 

“I never could forget the loved ones at home, Irons; I would prefer death at once to a lingering imprisonment here.”

“Well, I am going to help you all to leave just as soon as it can be done.  I understand how you feel, and sympathize with you.”

The Englishman proved himself the most valuable kind of a friend.  The authority which he possessed over these savage South Sea Islanders was stretched to the utmost, but he never hesitated to employ it.  But for his presence the Americans would have been put to death within a few hours at most of their arrival on the mainland, and without his aid it would have been impossible for them ever to have gotten away.

When everything was in shape, Irons hired a canoe of the natives for the use of his friends.  The craft was not large enough to contain all the party, and since all real peril had passed, there was no fear in following the course that had been agreed upon.

Captain Gooding, second mate Harrison; and one of the sailors left Poseat in the canoe, first mate Watchman and his six companions remaining on the island.  This was ten days after the loss of the Tewksbury Sweet.

Captain Gooding and all the sailors were in the best of spirits, for they were confident that their wearisome captivity was substantially over.  The three made their way from island to island, stopping at eight different points, sometimes for days, and even weeks.  Finally they arrived at Ruk, where they found a missionary station, and received the most hospitable treatment.

The good men owned a boat abundantly large enough to carry twenty persons, and the captain asked its use with which to bring the rest of his crew from Poseat.  This was asking more than would be supposed, for the missionaries told them that they were surrounded by hostile natives, who were liable to an outbreak at any hour, in which event the only means of escape the white men possessed was the boat.