' But let's do what we can."
"Put up that pop-gun," ordered Kempt. "She will sink us long before
you're in range for revolver work. I'll run up my handkerchief for a
white flag."
"To surrender?"
"What else can we do?"
"And be lugged back to the rock, all of us? Not I, for one!"
The launch was now within hailing distance, and every man aboard her
was glaring at the helpless little yacht-gig.
"Wait!"
It was the Governor who spoke. Rising from his seat in the stern, he
hailed the officer who was sighting the rapid-fire gun.
"Lieutenant Tschersky!" he called.
At sight of the old man's lean, uniformed figure, rising from among
the rest, there was visible excitement and surprise aboard the launch.
The officer saluted and ordered the engine stopped that he might hear
more plainly.
"Lieutenant," repeated the Governor, "I am summoned aboard His
Highness the Grand Duke Vladimir's yacht. You will proceed to the
harbor and await my return to the rock. There has been a mutiny among
the garrison, but I have quelled it."
The officer saluted again, gave an order, and the launch's nose
pointed for the rock.
"Governor," observed Lamont, as the old man sank again into his seat,
"you've earned your passage to Stockholm. You need not work for it."
CHAPTER XXI
THE ELOPEMENT
THE girls on the yacht had no expectation that Captain Kempt would
come back with the two young men.
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