The story of their loss had been told, in England; and the captain, who came from the neighborhood where Gerald's father dwelt, reported that the family had long mourned him as dead.

He himself was bent, not upon a buccaneering voyage--although, no doubt, if a rich ship had fallen into his hands he would have made no scruple in taking it--but his object was to trade with the natives, and to gather a store of such goods as the islands furnished, in exchange for those of English make.

He had, too, fetched slaves from the western coast of Africa, and had disposed of them to much advantage; and the ship was now about to proceed on her way home, each man's share, of the profits of the expedition, amounting to a sum which quite answered his expectations.
It was two months later before the boys, to their great delight, again saw the hills behind Plymouth.

None who had seen them embark in the Swanne would have recognized, in the stalwart young fellows who now stepped ashore on the hove, the lads who then set sail.
Nearly three years had passed.

The sun of the tropics had burnt their faces almost to a mahogany color Their habit of command, among the natives, had given them an air and bearing beyond their years; and though Ned was but eighteen, and Gerald a little older, they carried themselves like men of mature years.
It had been, indeed, no slight burden that they had endured.