f his men; but he'll get us out of the way so that we
shan't be able to tell."

"Oh, I won't believe it!" cried Mike angrily. "Such a thing couldn't be
done."

"But it has been done over and over again," said Vince: "I've read of
it. They used to sell men and boys to sea-captains to take out to the
plantations; and once they were there, they had no chance given them of
getting back for years and years."

"I don't believe it," said Mike sharply. "It might have been in the
past, but it couldn't be done now."

"That's what I've been trying to think," said Vince sadly; "but this
wouldn't be done in England. This is a Frenchman, and the French have
colonies abroad, the same as we have. How do we know where he'll take
us?" Mike started at this, and looked more disturbed. "I say," he said
at last, "you don't really think that, do you, Vince?"

"I wish I didn't," replied the boy sadly; "but it's what has seemed to
come to me, since we've been on board here. I don't know where this man
comes from, but he's a regular smuggler, and there's no knowing where
he'll take us."

"But my father--your father--you don't suppose they'll stand still and
let us be taken off without trying to stop it. Father's just like a
magistrate in the island."

"Of course they wouldn't stand still and allow it to be done; but how
will they know?"

Mike was silent, and his face now began to look haggard as he stared at
his companion.

"Whoever knew that this Captain Jacques had a place in the island where
he stored rich cargoes of foreign things? Why, he may have been doing
it for years, and your father, though he is like a magistrate, hasn't
known anything about it."

"No, nor your father either," said Mike sadly. "I don't think anything
of that," continued Vince; "what I do think a great deal of is that
neither you nor I, who've always been climbing about the cliffs and
boating shouldn't have found it out before."

"But surely now we're missing they'll find it out," cried Mike, who was
ready to snatch at any straw of hope.

"I don't see how," said Vince. "They're sure to think that one of us
met with an accident, and that the other was drowned in trying to save
him."

Mike was silent for some moments, during which he stood gazing wistfully
at his fellow-prisoner.

"That would be very nice of them to think that of us," he said at last,
slowly. "But do you think they would believe us likely to be so brave?"

"Oh yes, they'