with dark 'tis us for the
boats--muffled oars--we clap 'em aboard by the forechains larboard and
starboard, and the ship is ours, bullies--ours!"

"Well and good, Cap'n!" piped Smiling Sam. "But how if she slip her
cable and stand from us--"

"And how shall she, my fool lad, and the wind dropped? The wind's
failed 'em and they lie helpless--"

"And that's gospel true, Cap'n. Aye, aye, we'm wi' you! Gi'e us the
word, Cap'n!" quoth divers voices in fierce answer.

"O sink me!" groaned Mings, "here lies poor Abnegation shattered alow
and aloft--O burn me, here's luck! But you'll take me along, Roger?
If Death boards me to-night I'd rayther go in honest fight than lying
here like a sick dog--so you'll have me along, Roger?"

"Aye that will I, lad, that will I and--"

"Ahoy the shore!" roared Godby's great voice again, "Let them
rogue-dogs as'll turn honest mariners, them as is for England and a
free pardon, stand by to come aboard and lively! In ten minutes we
open fire wi' every gun as bears!"

Now here there brake forth a clamour of oaths, cries and dismayed
questioning:

"Lord love us, what now, Cap'n? Is us to be murdered, look'ee? Doomed
men we be, lads! Shall us wait to be shot, mates? What shall us do,
Cap'n, what shall us do?"

"Lie low!" quoth Tressady, rising, "Bide still all and let no man stir
till I give word. In half an hour or less 'twill be black dark--very
well, for half an hour I'll hold 'em in parley, I'll speak 'em smooth
and mighty friendly, here shall be no shooting. I'll hold 'em till the
moon be down--and Smiler shall come wi' me--come, Sammy lad--come!"

So saying he turned and I watched him stride out upon that spit of sand
hard by Bartlemy's tree and this great fat fellow trotting at his
heels. Upon the edge of the tide Tressady paused and hailed loud and
cheerily:

"Penfeather ahoy! O Adam Penfeather here come I Roger Tressady for
word wi' you. Look'ee Adam, we've fought and run foul of each other
this many a year--aye, half round the world and all for sake o' Black
Bartlemy's Treasure as is mine by rights, Adam, mine by rights. Well
now to-night let's, you and me, make an end once and for all one way or
t'other. There's you wi' my ship--true, Adam, true! But here's me wi'
the island and the treasure, Adam, and the treasure. And what then?
Why then, says I, let's you and me, either come to some composition or
fight it out man to man, Adam, man to man. So come asho