The weeks passed all too quickly for James Hardy.

He saw Kate Nugent at her own home; met her, thanks to the able and hearty assistance of Mr.
Wilks, at Fullalove Alley, and on several occasions had the agreeable task of escorting her back home.
He cabled to his father for news of the illustrious stowaway immediately the _Conqueror_ was notified as having reached Port Elizabeth.

The reply--"Left ship"-- confirmed his worst fears, but he cheerfully accepted Mrs.Kingdom's view that the captain, in order to relieve the natural anxiety of his family, had secured a passage on the first vessel homeward bound.
Captain Hardy was the first to reach home.

In the early hours of a fine April morning the _Conqueror_ steamed slowly into Sunwich Harbour, and in a very short time the town was revelling in a description of Captain Nugent's first voyage before the mast from lips which were never tired of repeating it.

Down by the waterside Mr.Nathan Smith found that he had suddenly attained the rank of a popular hero, and his modesty took alarm at the publicity afforded to his action.