"All 'bout done up," he growled.

"We could do no good now," said Archy, "for of course I am not sure
where the entrance is."

"Must be getting toward morning too, and time to be aboard, Mr
Raystoke. There, sir, sometimes we win and many more times we lose.
We've lost this time, so let's go back aboard, according to orders.
Forward right, my lads, and let's make the best of it."

"Never mind, Mr Gurr," said Archy in a low voice. "I was regularly in
despair as I was being taken from one prison to be shut up in another,
when I ran up against you. Perhaps we may run up against the smugglers
after all."

"Wish we might," said the master. "Oh, how I could fight!"

But they ran up against no smugglers on their way to the boats, which
they hailed from the strand, where the water was very low; and soon
after they were passing in the lowest of low spirits, out of the cove to
the open channel, when once more every one was thrilled with excitement,
for right away in the offing they heard a gun.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.

"Can't be, sir," said Gurr, as he tried to pierce the darkness, "because
the skipper must be lying at anchor where we left him."

"Hah! See that?" cried Archy, as the men bent to their oars and made
the now phosphorescent water flash.

"Only the oars, lad. Water brimes."

_Thud_! came the report of a heavy gun.

"You're right, lad! 'Twas the flash from a gun. Some one's pursuing of
something. Pull away, my lads, let's get aboard, and the skipper may
join in. Bah! What's the good o' shore-going? Man's sure to get wrong
there."

The men forgot their weariness in the excitement, as they realised that
some vessel was in chase of a smuggler, but they murmured among
themselves at their ill luck at being away from the cutter; for if they
had been aboard at the first shot, the anchor would have been weighed or
slipped, and the _White Hawk_ gone to see what was going on, probably to
help capture a heavily laden smuggler craft.

"And we should have took our share, lads," said Dick in a whisper.
"Hey, boot we are out o' luck."

"Don't sit muttering and grumbling there, my lad, but pull hard, and
let's get aboard," cried the master, and the oars dipped away in the
dark sea, seeming to splash up so much pale lambent fire at every
stroke.

But this was no novelty to the men, and the boats sped on, one in the
other's wake, with the crew straining their heads over their left
shoulders to catch a g