n for two days.'

"We told en and lay by chattin' and wonderin' 'ow we was to plunder
she, with them in the road. Time went by and there we was still
chattin' about the weather an' suchlike damfoolery. Every minute I was
expectin' to see the Helen's gigs swarmin' out, and then it wouldn't
be pickin's we'd get but leavin's.

"''Ere,' whispers I to Zakky, 'scare 'im off for God's sake.'

"'I'll 'ave a try,' says 'e. 'Say, Mr. Captain, the tide's makin'. She
do come through 'ere like a river and you'll be swamped for certain.
Pull for the shore, sailor.'

"'Will you pilot me in?' says the captain.

"'Naw,' says Zakky. 'I got to be after my crab-pots; but I'll send my
nephew wid 'e.'

"'Keep 'em lost out in the Sound for a couple of hours, son,' he
whispers to the boy, and the lad takes 'em off into the fog. 'Now for
the plunder, my dears,' says Zakky; and we makes for the ship.

"But Lor' bless you, Sir, she were already plundered. While we was
chattin' away on her port side four Helen's gigs' crews had boarded
her quietly from starboard and was eatin' through her like a pest
o' ants. They'd come staggering on deck--fathers, sons and
grandfathers--with bundles twice as big nor themselves, toss 'em into
the gigs and go back for more. As for us, we stood like men mazed. I
tell you, Sir, a God-fearing man can't make a livin' 'mong that lot;
they'll turn a vessel inside out while he's thinkin' how to begin.

"By-'m-by they comed on the prize o' the lot--a bar'l o' beef. My
word, what an outcry! 'I seed 'en first!' 'Naw, you deddn': hands
off!' 'Leggo; 's mine!' Quarrellin' 'mong themselves now, mark you,
beef bein' as scarce as diamonds in them hard times. Old Hosea--the
old toad that you seed steerin' that gig just now--he puts a stop to
et.

"'Avast ragin', thou fools,' says 'e; "coastguards will be along in a
minute and then there'll be nothin' for nobody. Set en in my boat an'
I'll divide it up equal on the beach.'

"They done as they were told, and away goes old Hosea for the shore,
followed by the other gigs loaded that deep they could hardly swim.
Seein' they hadn't left us nothin' but the bare bones we pulled in
ourselves shortly after, and my dear life what a sight we did behold!
Fellows runnin' about in the fog on the beach, for all the world like
shadows on a blind, cursin', shoutin', fightin', tumblin' over each
other, huntin' high and low, and in the middle of 'em all old Hosea
crying out for his bar'