up silently out of the darkness. "Well, my friend, is all safe?" he
asked in broken English as the boat came alongside.

"Safe enough, captain. Most of the revenue men have gone round from here
to the other side of the bay, where they got news, as they thought, that
a cargo was going to be run. The man on duty here has been squared, and
will be away at the other end of his beat. The carts are ready, a
quarter of a mile away. I made you out with my glass just before sunset,
and sent round word at once to our friends to be in readiness."

The boats started as soon as their cargoes were on board, and the work
went on uninterruptedly for the next two hours, by which time the last
keg was on shore, and the boats returned to the lugger. The men were in
high spirits. The cargo had been a valuable one, and the whole had been
got rid of without interruption. The boats were at once hoisted up, the
anchor weighed, and the lugger made her way out to sea.

"What port do you land at?" Julian asked Markham.

"We shall go up the Loire to Nantes," he replied; "she hails from there.
To-morrow morning you had best put on that sailor suit I gave you
to-day. Unless the wind freshens a good deal we sha'n't be there for
three or four days, but I fancy, from the look of the sky, that it will
blow up before morning, and, as likely as not, we shall get more than we
want by evening. There is generally a cruiser or two off the mouth of
the river. In a light wind we can show them our heels easily enough, but
if it is blowing at all their weight tells. I am glad to be at sea
again, lad, after being cooped up in that cursed prison for two years.
It seems to make a new man of one. I don't know but that I am sorry I
shot that fellow. I don't say that he didn't deserve it, for he did; but
I don't see it quite so strongly as I did when I was living on bread and
water, and with nothing to do but to think of how I could get even with
him when I got out; besides, I never calculated upon getting anyone else
into a mess, and I am downright sorry that I got you into one, Mr.
Wyatt. However, the job is done, and it is no use crying over spilt
milk."

Markham's prediction turned out correct. A fresh wind was blowing by the
morning, and two days later the lugger was running along, close under
the coast, fifteen miles south of the mouth of the Loire, having kept
that course in order to avoid any British cruisers that might be off the
mouth of the river. Befor