The little caravan was soon on the march; the two dogs cleared the way, leaping, bounding, and scampering on before, sniffing the bushes with their intelligent noses; then, returning to their master, they read in his face what was next to be done. Mary walked by the side of Blinky, amusing her father with her prattle. Sophia, with her antelope, was gambolling around them, the one rivalling the other in the grace of their movements, not only without knowing it, but rather because they did not know it. The two mothers were keeping an eye on the donkey; whilst Frank, with his rifle charged, was ready to bring down a quail or encounter a hyena. Some hours after the pinnace hove in sight, the voyagers landed, and received the warm congratulations of those on shore. When Willis had secured the boat, he took a final survey of the coast, penetrating with his eyes every creek and crevice. "Is there no trace of the _Nelson_?" inquired Wolston. "None!" "Well, I had all along thought you would find it so; the wind for four days has been blowing that it would drive the _Nelson_ to her destination. Captain Littlestone, being charged with important despatches, having already lost a fortnight here, has, no doubt, taken advantage of the gale, and made sail for the Cape, trusting to find us all alive here on his return voyage." "Yes," said the Pilot, "I know very well that you have all good hearts, and that you are desirous of giving me all the consolation you can." "Would you not have acted, under similar circumstances, precisely as we suppose Captain Littlestone to have done?" "I admit that the thing, is not only possible, but also that, if alive, it is just what he would have done. I trust, if it be so, that when he gets into port he will report me keel-hauled?" "Keel-hauled?" "Yes, I mean dead. It is a thousand times better to pass for a dead man than a deserter." "The wisest course he could pursue, it appears to me, would be to hold his tongue--probably you will not be missed." "Ah! you think that her Majesty's blue jackets can disappear in that way, like musk-rats? But no such thing. When the captain in command at the station hails on board, every man and boy of the crew, from the powder-monkey to the first-lieutenant, are mustered in pipe-clay on the quarter-deck, and there, with the ship's commission in his hand, every one must report himself as he calls over the names. "Then the captain will tell the simple truth."