no mind to spend another night in this foxes' burrow.
Let us go back to the little port yonder and say we're what's left of a
shipwrecked crew. I'll be bound good beds enough would be offered to
such jolly mariners!"

A babel of voices followed this proposal. Some men were in favour,
while others, perhaps a trifle more sober, were against the move.

"I'd like to see you pass yourselves off as sailor men," shouted Lewis
with a wild laugh. "Besides, who's going to get the boat out with this
swell on? She'll be bottom up before she's ten yards beyond the
opening."

A fresh outburst of drunken argument drowned his further remarks, and
it soon became evident that the more reckless spirits had carried the
day. The remaining keg of brandy was handed down into the boat, and
the men prepared to follow, the first to move falling under the
thwarts, where he lay yelling that his arm was broken, while his
comrades staggered over his prostrate form.

George Woodley and I rushed forward. Whatever the risk of the voyage
might be, it was preferable to being left behind. But as we approached
the group of men who were gathered at the head of the flight of rough
steps, Rodwood waved us back.

"No room for you!" he cried with an oath. "No strangers or informers
come with us now; we've got enough to do to save our own necks."

"Quite right, captain!" added another drunken scoundrel. "Why did they
come with us at all? Let them bide there till they're fetched."

"For mercy's sake don't leave us here!" cried George. But a blow in
the face, which sent him staggering backwards, was the only response.
The blind man and the fellows who had been injured in the fight were
handed down into the boat. One groaned heavily as he was moved, his
complaints rising at last to a shriek which made my blood curdle.

"Lewis! Lewis!" I shouted in despair, "tell them to make room! We
won't betray you!"

The smuggler heard my cry, and paused with his foot already on the
first step of the descent.

"It's no good, Master Eden," he said, in a low, thick utterance. "If I
put you in the boat they'll throw you out. You're all right--I'll tell
Master Miles; or if not, you'll find it yourself if you look about.
I'm the only one as knows--"

The words, which I regarded merely as the rambling nonsense spoken by a
drunkard, were cut short by the speaker being forcibly dragged down
into the boat, which an instant later shoved off from the platform.