shall be
no run between the Tees and Yare, this side of Christmas. If there is,
we may call ourselves three old women. Shake hands, gentlemen, upon that
point; and we will have a glass of grog to it."

This was friendly, and rejoiced them all; for Nettlebones had been stiff
at first. Readily enough they took his orders, which seemed to make it
impossible almost for anything large to slip between them, except in
case of a heavy fog; and in that case they were to land, and post their
outlooks near the likely places.

"We have shed no blood yet, and I hope we never shall," said the senior
officer, pleasantly. "The smugglers of this coast are too wise, and I
hope too kind-hearted, for that sort of work. They are not like those
desperate scoundrels of Sussex. When these men are nabbed, they give up
their venture as soon as it goes beyond cudgel-play, and they never
lie in wait for a murderous revenge. In the south I have known a very
different race, who would jump on an officer till he died, or lash him
to death with their long cart-whips; such fellows as broke open Poole
Custom-house, and murdered poor Galley and Cator, and the rest, in a
manner that makes human blood run cold. It was some time back; but their
sons are just as bad. Smuggling turns them all to devils."

"My belief is," said Bowler, who had a gift of looking at things from an
outer point of view, "that these fellows never propose to themselves
to transgress the law, but to carry it out according to their own
interpretation. One of them reasoned with me some time ago, and he
talked so well about the Constitution that I was at a loss to answer
him."

"Me jewel, forbear," shouted Donovan; "a clout on the head is the only
answer for them Constitutionals. Niver will it go out of my mind about
the time I was last in Cark; shure, thin, and it was holiday-time; and
me sister's wife's cousin, young Tim O'Brady--Tim says to me, 'Now,
Corkoran, me lad--'"

"Donovan," Nettlebones suddenly broke in, "we will have that story,
which I can see by the cut of your jib is too good to be hurried, when
first we come together after business done. The sun will be down in less
than half an hour, and by that time we all must be well under way. We
are watched from the land, as I need not tell you, and we must not let
them spy for nothing. They shall see us all stand out to sea to catch
them in the open, as I said in the town-hall of Scarborough yesterday,
on purpose. Everybody