up in the
bow of the nearest.

"You will be coming to the jetty, Captain?" he cried in imperfect
English.

The skipper scowled at him, but did not answer.

"You will come to the jetty, Captain," the man repeated in his high,
sing-song voice. "Sure, and you've come convenient, for there's no one
here barring yourselves."

"And you're wanting brandy!" Augustin muttered bitterly under his
breath. He glanced at his men, as if he meditated resistance.

But, "Kerry law! Kerry law!" the man cried. "You know it well, Captain!
It's not I'll be answerable if you don't come to the jetty."

The skipper, who had fallen ill at Skull once before, and got away with
some loss, hoping that he might never see the place again, knew that he
was in the men's power. True, a single discharge of his carronades
would blow the boats to pieces; but he could not in a moment warp his
ship out through the narrow passage. And if he could, he knew that the
act would be bloodily avenged if he ever landed again in that part of
Ireland. He swore under his breath, and the steersman who had wrought
the harm by holding on too long wilted under his eye. The crew looked
other ways.

At length he yielded, and sulkily gave the order, the windlass was
manned, and the kedge drawn up. Fenders were lowered, and the sloop
slid gently to the jetty side.

In a twinkling a score of natives swarmed aboard. The man in the frieze
coat followed more leisurely, and with such dignity as became the owner
of a stone-walled house. He sauntered up to the skipper, a leer in his
eye. "You will have lost something the last time you were here,
Captain?" he said. "It is not I that will be responsible this time
unless the stuff is landed."

Augustin laughed scornfully. "The cargo is for Crosby of Castlemaine,"
he said. And he added various things which he hoped would happen to
himself if he landed so much as a single tub.

"It's little we know of Crosby here," the other replied; and he spat on
the deck. "And less we'll be caring, my dear. I say it shall be landed.
Here, you, Darby Sullivan, off with the hatch!"

Augustin stepped forward impulsively, as if he had a mind to throw the
gentleman in the frieze coat into the sea. But he had not armed himself
before he came on deck, the men of Skull outnumbered his crew two to
one, and, savage and half-naked as they were, were furnished to a man
with long sharp skenes and the skill to use them. If resistance had
been possible a