Dey live in de town most all. Two,
three thousand blacks."
"Well, we will begin with the others. I should think that in a
fortnight we ought to be able to do them all."
The next twelve days were occupied in a fruitless search. Every
fishing boat was overhauled and questioned, and Frank and Pedro
went ashore to every group of huts. The only fact that they
learned, was that a schooner answering to the description had been
seen some time before. The information respecting her was, however,
very vague; for some asserted that she was sailing one way, some
another; and Frank concluded that she had cruised about for some
days, before deciding where to lie up. It was at Tortola that they
first gained any useful information. Many vessels had, during the
last six weeks, entered one or other of the deep creeks, and one of
them had laid up for nearly a month in a narrow inlet with but one
or two negro huts on shore. It was undoubtedly the Phantom, or
rather the Dragon, for the negroes had noticed that name on her
stern. She had sailed on the day after the hurricane, and, as they
learned from shore villages at other points, had gone west.
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