uld have returned, and, perhaps, caught
Jack; they would seize him also, and it would be impossible to persuade
them that he had not come to rob their store. Still, his chief anxiety
was for Jack.

He thought much less about himself, or the dangers he might have to
encounter.

Bill was a hero, though he did not know it, notwithstanding that he had
been originally only a London street boy.

"I must find Jack, whatever comes of it," he said to himself, as he
pushed on.

At last he reached the low entrance of the smugglers' store-room, as
Jack and he had called it. He crept on carefully, and as he gained the
inner end of the passage, he saw a light burning close to where the
goods were piled up, but no voices reached his ear.

If the smugglers were there, they would surely be talking. He rose to
his feet, holding out the candle before him. Seeing no one, he advanced
boldly across the cavern. There lay a figure stretched upon the ground!

It was Jack!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

THE RAFT LAUNCHED AND VOYAGE COMMENCED.

Could Jack be dead? What could have happened to him? Bill, hurrying
forward, knelt down by his side, and lifted up his head. He still
breathed.

"That's a comfort," thought Bill. "How shall I bring him to? There's
not a drop of water here, and I can't carry him as far as the spring."

Bill rubbed his friend's temples, while he supported his head on his
knee.

"Jack! Jack! rouse up, old fellow! What's come over you?"

Bill held the candle up to Jack's eyes. Greatly to his joy they opened,
and he said, "Where am I? Is that you, Bill! Is it gone?"

"I am Bill, and you are in the cavern; but there is nothing to go that I
know of. It's all right. Stand up, old fellow, and come along,"
replied Bill, cheeringly.

"Oh, Bill," said Jack, drawing a deep sigh, "I saw something."

"Did you?" said Bill; "the something did not knock you down, though."

"No; but I thought it would," responded Jack.

"That comes of wanting to take what isn't your own," said Bill.
"However, don't let's talk about that. If we are to get off with this
tide, we must hurry on board as fast as we can. Don't mind the gold; I
suppose that's what you came for. Our friends the Turgots will get it,
I hope; and they have more right to it than we have."

Bill's voice greatly re-assured Jack, who, fancying that he saw one of
the ghosts he was afraid of, had fallen down in a sort of swoon. How
long it would have la