“That is satisfactory, Dominique, We got caught in it the other day, and I don’t want to meet another.  Well, you understand what I want.  To begin with, to search all the places a vessel that did not want to attract notice would be likely to lie up in.  We want to question people as to whether she has been seen, and if we don’t find her, to hear whether, when last seen, she was sailing in the direction of the Leeward Islands, or going west.”

“Me find out, sar,” the negro said, confidently.  “Someone sure to have seen her.”

“Well, you had better come below.  I have got a chart, and you shall mark all the islands where there are any bays that she would be likely to take shelter in, and we can then see the order in which we had better take them.”

This was a little beyond Dominique’s English, but Pedro explained it to him, and at Frank’s request went below with them; Frank telling Hawkins to weigh anchor as soon as the tanks were filled and the stores were on board.  He had, before he came off, returned to Senor Cordovo and paid for all the things supplied.

Going through the islands, one by one, Dominique made a cross against all that possessed harbours or inlets, that would each have to be examined.

“Tortola is the least likely of the places for them to go,” Frank said, “as it is a British island.”

“Not many people dar, sar.  Most people in town.  De rest of island rock, all hills broken up, many good harbours.”

“What is its size, Dominique?”

“Twelve miles long, sar.  Two miles wide.”

“Well, that is not a great deal to search, if we have to examine every inch of the coast.  How many people are there?”

“Two, three hundred white men.  Dey live in de town most all.  Two, three thousand blacks.”

“Well, we will begin with the others.  I should think that in a fortnight we ought to be able to do them all.”

The next twelve days were occupied in a fruitless search.  Every fishing boat was overhauled and questioned, and Frank and Pedro went ashore to every group of huts.  The only fact that they learned, was that a schooner answering to the description had been seen some time before.  The information respecting her was, however, very vague; for some asserted that she was sailing one way, some another; and Frank concluded that she had cruised about for some days, before deciding where to lie up.  It was at Tortola that they first gained any useful information.  Many vessels had, during the last six weeks, entered one or other of the deep creeks, and one of them had laid up for nearly a month in a narrow inlet with but one or two negro huts on shore.  It was undoubtedly the Phantom, or rather the Dragon, for the negroes had noticed that name on her stern.  She had sailed on the day after the hurricane, and, as they learned from shore villages at other points, had gone west.