y
mun. Much better as mining. Mais, parbleu! I am a fool, me."

"Why?"

"Zat I, too, vill not trade and make ze mun."

"Why don't you, if you prefer that business?"

"Ah! It is because I am what you call too mooch a cow--a hard cow. I
like not ze jail, me."

"You mean a coward?"

"Oui, oui. Cowhard. I am one cowhard for ze jail."

"Oh!" cried Peveril, suddenly enlightened. "Your friends of the
schooner are smugglers."

"Oui, zat it. Smoogler, an' bimeby, some time, maybe, soldat catch it.
Take all ze mun, put it in jail. Bim! No good!"

"That is the first time I ever heard of any smugglers on this coast,"
remarked Peveril, reflectively. "I wonder if they can have taken our
logs?"

"Log, no," replied Joe, contemptuously. "Canada, he gat plenty
log--too plenty. Tradair tak' ze drapeau, ze viskey, ze tick-tick, but
not ze log."

Here the conversation was ended by the arrival at the scene of labor,
and the work of dislodging stranded logs was begun. All day long they
toiled at the difficult task, straining, lifting, stumbling, rolling,
and slipping on the wet rocks, receiving many a bump and bruise,
pausing only for a bite of lunch and a whiff of pipe-smoke at noon,
and finally returning to Laughing Fish at dusk, slowly towing into the
cove a small raft of the recovered wreckage.

For several days longer, sometimes in clear weather, but often in
cheerless rain and fog, was the task of collecting such logs as had
stranded on the south side of the cove continued. At length the last
one was gathered from that direction, and our wreckers were ready to
explore the coast lying to the northward.

Not since the day of his coming had Peveril found leisure to revisit
the place where he had seen the mysterious figure of the cliffs. He
had thought often of her, and had so longed to return to that part of
the coast that only a strict sense of duty had prevented him. Now that
he was free to unravel the mystery if he could, he was as excited as a
boy off for a holiday.

He purposed gathering the few logs already seen on that side of the
cove, and then to continue his exploration indefinitely in search of
others; but, to his amazement, as they skirted the rugged coast, not a
log was to be found. In vain did the young leader stand up in his
boat, the better to scan every inch of the shore. In vain did he land
on the rocks and scramble over their broken surface. There were no
logs, and yet he knew they had been there five