e time past the members of the band had been
forced abstainers. Their faces flushed, their eyes brightened with a
feverish light, while with loosened tongues they began to jabber like
monkeys, laughing long and uproariously at their own coarse jokes, and
raising their voices to a shout when the din made it no longer possible
for them to be heard.

There was no talk now of limiting the allowance; even Rodwood himself
was far too intoxicated to care, while Lewis seemed robbed of that
instinct of caution which had been bred in him by the risks of his
calling.

How long this orgy lasted I don't know, but it must have continued far
into the afternoon. The tide rose, and with it the sea; the broken
waves seemed to come jostling and elbowing each other through the
entrance to the cave, and splashed heavily against the foot of our
platform, sprinkling the unheeding revellers every now and again with a
dash of salt water. If the revenue cutter or any small craft had
passed close in to shore, the noise made by the fugitives must have
betrayed their whereabouts, as in their drunken frenzy they danced and
yelled like raving lunatics.

At length, quite suddenly it seemed to us, they were all fighting. How
the quarrel first started it was impossible to discern; but it had not
been in progress more than a few seconds when all the band were engaged
in the conflict. In terror I crouched in the corner of the rock
farthest removed from this scene of strife, expecting momentarily to
receive some injury from this outburst of unreasoning fury. With
clenched fists, and with logs of wood snatched from the ground, the
maniacs struck at each other, or grappling fell, and were trodden on
and stumbled over by the other combatants. Rodwood, fighting like an
enraged lion, and striking out indiscriminately right and left, felled
several antagonists, and was ultimately the means of putting an end to
the melee, but not before one man had received some severe injury from
a kick in the stomach, and another had been horribly burned about the
face from falling, half stunned, into the fire. The groans of these
wretches now mingled with the maudlin peacemaking of the other members
of the band, as they rubbed their bruises and gathered once more round
the brandy keg.

The fading light of the short winter day was deepening into darkness as
the horrid scene continued.

"Hark'ee!" cried Rodwood, suddenly dashing the pewter cup to the
ground: "I've