She had eighty hands at first, but eight of them went away in
the prize."
"Do you know whether she has gone off straight for France or whether
she is going to remain here?"
"Prom what I gathered from the men, sir, I believe the other two
privateers are going straight home. They loaded up from the
storehouses, taking, of course, the most valuable stuff. There was a
great deal of copper, but what the rest was I do not know. Our brig
was loaded up too, but I believe her intention was to transfer her
cargo into the first prize she took and send it to France. I do not
know whether she was going to cruise about here for a time, but I
should rather think that now that her consorts have gone and this
place been discovered she will not stay here, for she never intended
to cruise in these waters long. I know that her destination was the
Indian Ocean, and she intended to capture Indiamen on their way out or
home."
"In that case our expedition has been more satisfactory than I
expected," the captain said. "We shall have discovered and destroyed
their depot here, captured anyhow some valuable stuff, and caused the
two privateers that we have been hunting for so long to leave the
islands, to say nothing of this brig of yours, of which we had not
heard. Well, Mr. Wylde, what is your report?"
"It will take a long time to go through the whole sir, but I should
say that we have taken a most valuable prize.
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