Mr. Flagg was so amiable about the matter, and treated his guests with such marked affability during the rest of the evening that Tempest almost found it in his heart to relent. Only the fact that the trim little _Nautilus_ was lying snugly at anchor caused him to refrain. After an early breakfast next morning Dave and his companion started out for the north shore to take possession of their boat and bid its owner a more or less fond farewell. “Don’t bother me!” Cresswell snapped. “I want nothing from you but ten dollars a day. And mind you, no messages in bottles as you’re sinking. Ouch!” he added, putting a hand to his lame leg and turning his back on them. Five minutes later the _Nautilus_ was heading round the bend toward Shavay Bay, both her occupants feeling more than a little pleased with themselves. “Hello, Flagg’s boat is out, I see,” Dave said when they reached their destination. “I suppose he has gone fishing,” Tempest observed. “No, he said he was going to be very busy on the plantation all day. He will kick up a nice rumpus with his two Kanakas if they have taken the _Firefly_.” For some hours Tempest and Dave were exceedingly busy. It was probable that their very lives would depend on what they took on board, so they laid out their scant capital with the utmost care at the island’s solitary store. A couple of axes, shovels, and a few simple cooking utensils were placed on board. “I’m afraid we haven’t got much in the way of navigating instruments,” Tempest said, “but Jim will help us to worry through. This pocket-compass of mine is fairly accurate, and with our old chart we ought to manage all right. Heigho! I’ve known amateur yachtsmen who’d be scared to death at the idea of making the trip that is in front of us without a sextant, chronometer, patent log, barometer, dividers, and parallel rulers, besides compass and charts. Never mind, it’s a comfort to reflect that you can only be drowned once. Dave, my son, we’re in for it now. A life on the ocean wave, eh? In my time I’ve done some funny things, but I never before set out in a cockle-shell like ours, with one boy and a Kanaka, looking for lost treasure. Well, we’re ready now,” he added, as they placed the last beaker of fresh water in the _Nautilus_. “I only want to see the wind shift round a bit and then we will start.” “It’s due east now, isn’t it?” Dave said. “Pretty near, and a nice job we should have beating up against it. I should regard it as a good omen if the fates sent us a gentle breeze from the northwest to start us nicely on our journey. Let’s go up to the bungalow and say good-by to old Flagg, bless him! He has been a real friend to us.” But Flagg was not there, nor did he put in an appearance when the sun was dipping in a crimson sky to the westward.