the skipper.

"Now then!" shouted the mate sharply, "lively there! Lively with it!"

The men looked at each other helplessly and went to their posts as a
scream of dismay arose from the fair beings below who, having just begun
to realise their position, were coming on deck to try and improve it.

"What!" roared the skipper in pretended astonishment, "what! Gells
aboard after all I said? It can't be; I must be dreaming!"

"Take us back!" wailed the damsels, ignoring the sarcasm; "take us back,
captain."

"No, I can't go back," said the skipper. "You see what comes o'
disobedience, my gells. Lively there on that mains'l, d'ye hear?"

"We won't do it again," cried the girls, as the schooner came to the
mouth of the harbour and they smelt the dark sea beyond. "Take us back."

"It can't be done," said the skipper cheerfully.

"It's agin the lor, sir," said Ephraim Biddle solemnly.

"What! Taking my own ship out?" said the skipper in affected surprise.
"How was I to know they were there? I'm not going back; 'tain't likely.
As they've made their beds, so they must lay on 'em."

"They ain't got no beds," said George Scott hastily. "It ain't fair to
punish the gals for us, sir."

"Hold your tongue," said the skipper sharply.

"It's agin the lor, sir," said Biddle again. "If so be they're
passengers, this ship ain't licensed to carry passengers. If so be as
they're took out agin their will, it's abduction--I see the other day a
chap had seven years for abducting one gal, three sevens--three sevens
is--three sevens is--well, it's more years than you'd like to be in
prison, sir."

"Bosh," said the skipper, "they're stowaways, an' I shall put 'em ashore
at the first port we touch at--Plymouth."

A heartrending series of screams from the stowaways rounded his
sentence, screams which gave way to sustained sobbing, as the schooner,
catching the wind, began to move through the water.

"You'd better get below, my gals," said Biddle, who was the eldest
member of the crew, consolingly.

"Why don't you make him take us back?" said Jenny Evans, the biggest of
the three girls, indignantly.

"'Cos we can't, my dear," said Biddle reluctantly; "it's agin the lor.
You don't want to see us put into prison, do you?"

"I don't mind," said Miss Evans tearfully, "so long as we get back.
George, take us back."

"I can't," said Scott sullenly.

"Well, you can look for somebody else, then," said Miss Evans with
temper. "You won'