Edgar was glad to be again on board the _Tigress_. The account of the sale of the goods she had captured had now been received; the total amounted to £133,000, of which £110,000 had been paid in to the prize court by Mr. Blagrove, the other £23,000 had been the proceeds of the fruits and other goods. There were in addition the sums received for vessels sold. The astonishment of the officers of the _Tigre_ was great indeed when they heard the result, for very little had been said about the value of the cargo, and the sum realized was at least three times as great as the most sanguine had hoped.
"It was an excellent plan getting your father to undertake the business," Sir Sidney Smith said to Edgar, when the latter informed him that he had received a communication from his father saying how much the goods he had sold had realized. "I don't suppose they would have fetched a third of that amount had they been sold in the ordinary way by auction by the prize court. I am sure that we must all feel greatly obliged to him."
"And he must feel greatly obliged to you, Sir Sidney; for, as he told me, his commission had been fixed at three per cent, so he has, after paying his expenses, done a fine stroke of business for himself."
"He has managed extremely well, Mr. Blagrove, and it has been a fortunate affair for us all."
On arriving at Rhodes Sir Sidney Smith left the _Tigre_, and in the _Tigress_ sailed across to the Bay of Marmorice, preferring to explore it, in the first place, in a craft drawing but little water. He was delighted with the harbour, and after a day spent in sounding in various parts of it, found that there was ample depth of water for the larger ships, and that there were spots where these could lie alongside, run the upper-deck guns directly ashore, and careen the ships over to a point that would enable them to be freed of a considerable proportion of their weeds and barnacles. Returning to Rhodes, he then started in the _Tigre_ for Syria. He took Edgar with him as interpreter, replacing him temporarily by another midshipman, and leaving Wilkinson with a report from himself to Lord Keith strongly recommending Marmorice as being suitable in all respects for a rendezvous for the fleet and transports.