t?"

"Nonsense!" cried Poole. "We are all coming down to get on board the
schooner as quickly as we can."

"And a blessed good thing too," growled the other man. "But you'd
better stop where y'are, for this 'ere's an awful place. Anybody might
have my job for me."

"Yes," said Poole, "I know it must have been terribly bad, but we are
off again directly with the news that you two are all right."

"That we are which, sir?" said the first speaker. "Oh, I say, Mr
Poole, sir, don't go and tell the skipper a lie like that."

"No, no; of course I'll tell him about how you have suffered; but we
haven't been lying in feather-beds up there. Here, I say, Fitz, don't
laugh."

"I couldn't help it," cried Fitz.

"No, sir, you couldn't," said the first man. "We couldn't at first. I
laughed at Jem to see him smacking his own face all over, and he laughed
at me and said mine looked beastly. And we didn't either of us look
nice when the sun rose this morning, not even when we'd had a good wash.
But it's all over now, as you are coming down, and the first thing Jem
and me's going to do as soon as we gets aboard the schooner is to go and
hide our heads in the hold. Say, Jem, old lad, I wonder what Chips will
say to you when he sees your mug!"

"Just the same as he will say to you, messmate, about yourn."

"Hush! Don't talk. Get back into hiding again, and be ready to pick up
the first load as soon as they come down."

"What of, sir? Prisoners or plunder?"

"Spaniards, my lad. Come, be serious. We are in a queer fix up there,
shut in by the enemy. Have you seen anything of them here?"

"Yes; about a couple of dozen ugly-looking beggars, sort of
mahogany-brown, come and had a look; but they didn't see us, and went
back. It was just afore that first firing began."

"That's right," cried Poole. "Back with you; but it won't be long
before some one comes, and then you must drop down to the coast, signal
the schooner, land your load, and come back; but keep two men to help
you."

"Ay, ay, sir."

"One word; you haven't seen any of the Teals, I suppose?"

"Oh yes, sir. Old Butters rowed up with the dinghy this evening."

"Last evening, mate," growled the other.

"Yes, that's right, messmate. He just had a word with us. Mr Burgess
sent him. He wanted news, but of course we had got none, only about the
shooting. The bosun said that if the skipper didn't soon come back he
was afraid accidents would happen t