“Of course, it would be horrid, Frank, and perhaps you are right, but it must be an awful trial.”

“I have done all I could to set her mind at rest,” Frank said.  “I wrote to her directly I arrived at Gibraltar, and again as soon as I got the letter from Madeira saying that the brigantine had touched there.  I wrote from Madeira again with what news I could pick up, and again from Porto Rico, from the Virgin Islands, and from San Domingo.  Of course, from there I was able to say that the scent was getting hot, and that I had no doubt I should not be long before I fell in with the brigantine.  Then I sent another letter from Jaquemel.  That seems to me a long time ago, for we have done so much since; but it is not more than ten days back.  We will post another letter the first time that we touch anywhere, on the off chance of its going home by a mail steamer, and getting there before us.”

“It was wonderful your finding out that I had been carried off in the Phantom.  That was what troubled me most, except about mother.  I did not see how you could guess that the brigantine we had both noticed the day before was the Phantom.  I felt sure that you would suspect who it was, but I could not see how you would connect the two together.”

“You see, I did not guess it at first,” he replied.  “I felt sure that it was Carthew from the first minute when I found that you had not landed, and it was just the luck of finding out that the Phantom’s crew had returned, and that they had been paid off at Ostend, that put me on the track.  Of course, directly I heard that she had been altered and turned into a brigantine, I felt sure that she was the craft that we had noticed; and as soon as I learned through Lloyd’s that she had sailed south from the Lizard, I felt certain that she must have gone up the Mediterranean, or to the West Indies.  I felt sure it was the latter.  However, it was a great relief when I got a letter from Lloyd’s agent at Madeira, telling me that the brigantine had touched there, and I felt certain that I should hear of you either here or at one of the South American ports.”

They kept on until they reached the hut at the point where the path forked.  It was found to be empty.

“Open the basket,” Frank said.  “We must have a meal before we go further.  We have come about half the distance.

“Now, Bertha, there is the bay, you see, and it is all downhill, which is a comfort.  Do you feel tired, dear?”

“Not tired,” she said, “but my feet are aching a bit.  You see, I had thin deck shoes on when we were hurried ashore, and they are not good for walking long distances in.”

“Well, we will have a quarter of an hour’s rest,” he said.  “It is getting dark fast, and by the time we go on it will be night, and will be a great deal cooler than it has been.”

“I can go on at once if you like,” she said.

“No, dear; there is no use in hurrying.  We may as well stop half an hour as a quarter.  Don’t you hear that?”