Meanwhile, Alice Lindsay's nineteen-year-old sister Dolly becomes enamoured with a kindly French officer-on-leave, Roger de Sorgues.

During the return voyage to Britain, however, the engines of the Seamew fail, and the ship is forced to proceed at a much slower pace, driven by sail only.

The ship is finally wrecked near Cape Verde, but the survivors make it to the shore and eventually to continental Africa, where they are captured by Bedouins who attempt to ransom them.

The novel ends happily with a double wedding: Robert Morgand with Alice Lindsay, and Roger de Sorgues with Dolly.

The novel was serialized in the newspaper Le Journal from October 17, 1907 to December 25, 1907, and published by Hetzel et Cie in book form the same year.