CHAPTER XIV
NORFOLK ISLAND—ARCADIA
And now, my innocence and lack of complicity in Hay- ston's irregularities having been established, a revulsion of feeling took place in the minds of the captain and officers of the Rosario with regard to me.
After the fullest explanations furnished by the traders and others, backed up by the manifest sympathy and good- will of the inhabitants of Strong Island, it became apparent that some sort of reparation was due to me. This took the form of a courteous invitation to accept a passage to Sydney in H.M.S. Rosario, and to join the officers' mess on the voyage. " I'm afraid that we acted hastily in your case, Mr. Telfer! " said Captain Dupont. "You have been thor- oughly cleared of all accusations made against you. I am bound to say they were very few. And you seem chiefly to have acted as a peacemaker and a power for good. I have gathered that you are anxious to rejoin your friends in Sydney. I shall be glad to have your company on the return voyage. What do you say? I trust you will not refuse ; I shall otherwise think you have not forgiven my apparent harshness."
Thus pressed to return to family and friends from whom, at times, in spite of my inborn roving propensities, the separation had cost me dear what could I do but thank the manly and courteous potentate, and comply with an invitation so rarely granted to a South Sea adventurer. I was the more loth to lose the opportunity as there had come
