better assurance of the safety of his
charge, to let Skipper Bill and his crew, if it were indeed they, make
a shift for comfort on the rocks until morning. "Skipper Bill, sir!"
he called. "Can you swim?"

"Aye, b'y! But make haste."

"I'll show a light for you, sir, if you want t' swim out, but I'll not
leave the schooner."

At that there was a laugh--an unmistakable chuckle--sounding whence
the boy had heard the splash of an oar. It was echoed to right and
left. Then a splash or two, a creak or two and a whisper. After that
all was still again.

"'Tis lucky, now, I didn't go," Billy thought. "'Twas a trick, for
sure. But how did they know my name?"

That was simple enough, when he came to think about it. When the
skipper had warned the first fisherman off, he had ordered Billy
forward by name. Wreckers they were, then--simple, good-hearted folk,
believing in their right to what the sea cast up--and now bent on
"salving" what they could, but evidently seeking to avoid a violent
seizure of the cargo.

Billy appreciated this feeling. He had himself no wish to meet an
assault in force, whether in the persons of such good-natured fellows
as the man who had grinned at him on the morning of the wreck, or in
those of a more villainous cast. He hoped it was to be a game of wits;
and now the lad smiled.

"'Tis likely," he thought, "that I'll keep it safe."

For an hour or more there was no return of the alarm. The harbour
water rippled under the winds; the rigging softly rattled and sang
aloft; the swish of breakers drifted in from the narrows.

Billy sat full in the light of the deck lamps, with a gun in his
hands, that all the eyes, which he felt sure were peering at him from
the darkness roundabout, might see that he was alive to duty.

As his weariness increased, he began to think that the wreckers had
drawn off, discouraged. Once he nodded; again he nodded, and awoke
with a start; but he was all alone on the deck, as he had been.

Then, to occupy himself, he went below to light the cabin candle. For
a moment, before making ready to go on deck again, he sat on the
counter, lost in thought. He did not hear the prow of a punt strike
the _Spot Cash_ amidships, did not hear the whispers and soft laughter
of men coming over the side by stealth, did not hear the tramp of feet
coming aft. What startled him was a rough voice and a burst of
laughter.

"Come aboard, skipper, sir!"

The companionway framed six weath