mp and nearly fell
headlong.

"Bother!" he ejaculated loudly, to add to the noise he made, and
instantly a gruff voice from their right growled out, "Who goes there?"
accompanying the question with a clicking of a rifle-lock. "Friends,"
cried Fitz sharply. "The word."

"_Teal_" cried Poole, as he scrambled up. "Aren't right," growled the
same voice. "That you, Mr Poole?"

"Oh, it's you, Chips!" cried the lad, in a tone full of relief.

"Winks it is," was the reply; "but the skipper said I warn't to let
anybody pass without he said Sponson."

"Sponson," cried Fitz, laughing.

"Ah, you know now," growled the carpenter, "because I telled you; but it
don't seem right somehow. But you aren't enemies, of course."

"Not much," said Poole. "Well, how are you getting on, Chips?"

"Oh, tidy, sir, tidy; only it's raither dull work, and precious damp. A
bit wearisome like with nothing to do but chew. Thought when I heard
you that there was going to be something to warm one up a bit.
Wonderful how chilly it gets before the sun's up. I should just like to
have a bit of timber here, and my saw."

"To let the enemy know exactly where we are?"

"Ah, of course; that wouldn't do. But I always feel when I haven't got
another job on the way that it's a good thing to do to cut up a bit of
timber into boards."

"Why?" asked Fitz, more for the sake of speaking than from any desire to
know.

"Plaisters, my lad."

"Plaisters?"

"Ay; for sore hulls. A bit of thin board's always handy off a coast
where there's rocks, and there's many a time when, if the carpenter had
had plenty of sticking-plaister for a vessel's skin, a good ship could
have been saved from going down. Nice place this. What a spot it would
have been if it had been an island and the schooner had been wrecked!"

"What do you want the schooner wrecked for?" cried Poole.

"Me, sir? I don't want the schooner wrecked. I only said if it had
been, and because you young gents was talking the other day about being
on a desolate island to play Robinson Crusoe for a bit."

"Oh yes, I remember," said Fitz.

"So do I, sir. It set me thinking about that chap a good deal. Some
men do get chances in life. Just think of him! Why, that fellow had
everything a chap could wish for. Aren't talking too loud, are we, Mr
Poole?"

"Oh no. No one could hear us whispering like this."

"That's right. I am glad you young gents come, for it was getting very
unked