es louder, sometimes fainter; but as I watched, one of the group
struck a light, and I saw in the flash four or five or more figures, and
the face of the man who had entered the house in the evening, who was
now holding a lantern to be lighted, and was also looking up at the
house. It was a dark lantern, I suppose, for the light was shut up in
some way after that. I shook each of the boys and told them to look out
of the window, and then I ran into Mr Clare's room and woke him. When
he saw that some sort of robbery or attack was to be made on the house,
he exclaimed, "I hope they do not know that the Captain is alone in the
brig," and ran downstairs to bolt all the doors and windows as securely
as they could be fastened, and awaken Clump and Juno, who slept in a
little room off the kitchen. Not a lamp was lighted in the house, but
the smugglers had heard the noises made, and now, talking and swearing
aloud, approached the door and turned the handle. Being bolted within,
they could not open it.

"Hullo! hullo! I say, you Tregellin fellows, wake up!"--it was the
voice we had heard before--"wake up and let us in?"--it sounded as if he
turned to his companions then, and laughed and muttered
something--"here's some decent sailor-boys as wants a drop and a bite,
so wake up quick, boys and niggers!--let us in, I say, or we'll break
open the doors, and break your bones into the bargain."

At the conclusion of the speech, they all beat on the door and house
with fists and sticks, and laughed loudly at their leader's joke. Mr
Clare now went down the narrow, creaking stairs again to the big door
they were pounding against so fiercely, and from behind its defence
answered the summons.

"Men: this is a private house, and you must go away. You will get
nothing here, and we are armed."

"Hurrah!" they answered without. I shall omit the terrible oaths with
which they loaded every breath they spoke. "Who are you, big voice?"

"No matter," called out Mr Clare, "who I am. I suspect who you are,
and we do not intend to let you get in here--that is all."

"That's a lie--we'll be in in ten minutes and make your bass a squeak.
If you don't open this 'ere door in a jiffy--we'll make grease-pots of
you along with them niggers. Look what we'll do with your castle--just
what we have been doing with the old hulk down there on the rocks."

As he spoke, the darkness in the house withdrew to the holes and
corners, and flashes of re