y more so if an alarm were given along the coast, as it easily
might be if one of their craft happened to escape us; my advice,
therefore--if you ask it--is to interfere with nobody until we have been
into the Conconil lagoons."

"Why, Lascelles, you surely are not _afraid_?" he asked, looking me
surprisedly in the face.

"No, sir, I am _not_," I answered, rather nettled, "I am only prudent;
and--"

"Pooh!" he interrupted lightly, "prudent! Me dear bhoy, prudence is a
very good thing--sometimes, but it does not do for such business as
ours. A bould dash and have done wid it is the motto for us. Anyhow, I
intind to go in, so there's an end av it, and I'll thank ye, young
gintleman, to point out the channel as soon as we open it."

"But," I remonstrated, "I know nothing whatever of the place beyond what
I saw of it in passing. Do you?"

"Not a wan ov me; but what matther?" was his characteristic reply.

"Simply this," said I. "The navigation is doubtless difficult, and the
water shallow. We should find ourselves in a pretty pickle if we
plumped into a hornet's nest and on to a shoal at the same moment."

"How big did you say that felucca was that you saw going in there?" he
asked.

"Nearly or quite two hundred tons," said I, "but--"

"And we are eighty," said he. "Where she could float we can--"

"By no means," I interrupted. "I do not believe she drew an inch more
than eight feet, whilst we draw nine; and an extra foot of water, let me
tell you, Mr O'Flaherty, makes all the difference in these shallow
inlets."

"Say no more," was the answer. "In we go, even if we never come out
again."

That, I thought, was scarcely the resolution to which a wise commander
would have come; but after such an expression I could, of course, only
hold my peace, and I did so until a few minutes later when we opened the
entrance to the channel, which I pointed out to him.

"Then you will clear for action and send the crew to quarters, av ye
plaise, Mr Lascelles," said O'Flaherty; which done, we hauled our wind
and reached in for the narrow opening.

It was a foolhardy undertaking, to my mind; but I must do. O'Flaherty
the justice to say that, having entered upon it, he neglected no
precaution to ensure our success. Thus, his first act, after the
mustering of the crew, was to furl the square canvas, to facilitate the
working of the schooner; after which he requested Courtenay to go aloft
to the topgallant-yard to se