That might depend a great deal on the strength of the breeze, and even more on the crookedness of the channel. Account had also to be taken of the fact that no man can do his fastest walking in yielding sea-sand. "There it is!" said Pete. "Captain, they hauled their boat a'most out o' water." "They can shove it in again quick enough," replied Kroom. "I don't know exactly what to do or say. The fact is, they're a prime good lot of fellows--hard-working, sober, peaceable. All of 'em go to meeting." "Well, Kroom," said Pickering, "I knew a real partiklar feller once, and they said he'd been a pirate. I didn't quite believe it of him." "Here we come!" responded Kroom, as the _Elephant_ glided somewhat lazily around a sandy curve. "Jump ashore, Pete! Get there!" Sam had already noticed how remarkably quick his long-shore comrade could be in his movements, but he was surprised now at the sudden elastic bound which took Pete out of the _Elephant_ as she almost grazed the bank on that side of the inlet. Then away he went toward the wrecker boat, and his bare feet were the correct thing for sand-walking, or wading. At that very moment the four bay fishermen came in sight, toiling along breathlessly under the hot sun, and the foremost of them shouted: "Hullo, Kroom! Want to see ye!" "Come on!" roared Kroom. "We'll wait for ye! H'ist yourselves along. Plenty o' time!" Pete was now at the hauled-out boat and was peering over into her, but he had not uttered a sound. He was thinking very fast indeed. "We've got 'em!" he said to himself. "What rascals they are! Who'd ha' thought it of 'em! This is what it means to be wrecked among wild savages. Take everything you have. But then they murder a fellow, and old Kroom says some of 'em eat him. Now I wonder what they'll say when they find they're caught?" He did not have to wait long before he found out. Here came the _Elephant_, her sail slipping down as she ran her nose into the sand. Out stepped Captain Pickering, and at the same moment the four bay fishermen came in a hurry to the opposite side of the cat-boat. "My quadrant!" shouted Captain Pickering. "Those two English guns of mine, and Captain Sanders's spare chronometer! It beats all!" "Yours, are they?" loudly responded the steersman of the cat-boat. "Well, if I ain't glad to see ye! And old Kroom, too! I was wonderin' how we'd get 'em back to their owners." [Illustration: "WHAT?" THUNDERED CAPTAIN KROOM. "JUST SAY THAT OVER AGAIN!"] "What?" thundered Captain Kroom. "Just say that over again!" "Why, Captain," replied the fisherman, "them there insurance fellers are straight enough, but the tug-boat men are no better than so many river thieves. Reg'lar wreckers! We couldn't do a thing while they were around. Some of the _Goshawk_'s crew were just as bad."