The Wrong Rocks

Captain Clubin, had recognised, in St Malo, a certain Rantaine, who had stolen money from the owner of the steamship Durande, Messe Lethierry. Clubin, you will remember, was the captain of the Durande.

Captain Clubin had purchased a revolver. He had followed Rantaine to a remote clifftop where he was waiting to rendezvous with a smugglers' ship that would take him to South America. Clubin had forced Rantaine to hand over a leather belt containing seventy five thousand francs, before embarking. He claimed he was going to return the money to Messe Lethierry.

As Rantaine sailed away he was heard to shout back furiously that he would make sure someone on board his ship wrote to Messe Lethierry to tell him what had happened.

This is why Captain Clubin feared the postbox of the sea. For he had no intention of giving the money back to the owner of the Durande. Instead, he planned to run the Durande aground on the return trip to Guernsey, send the passengers off in a lifeboat, and pretend that he was going down with the ship. But being a good swimmer, his real intention was to swim ashore and start a new life with the money.

Little did he know that due to a set of misunderstandings and a thick fog, he would run the ship aground upon the wrong set of rocks!......