oots.

Some of the gang laughed, but the man who had spoken before gave
the Dutchman a shove that sent him whirling. 'None of that,' he said
sternly. 'We'll have British fair-play on British soil, and none of your
cursed longshore tricks. I won't stand by and see an Englishman
kicked, d'ye see, by a tub-bellied, round-starned, schnapps-swilling,
chicken-hearted son of an Amsterdam lust-vrouw. Hang him, if the skipper
likes. That's all above board, but by thunder, if it's a fight that you
will have, touch that man again.'

'All right, Dicon,' said their leader soothingly. 'We all know that
Pete's not a fighting man, but he's the best cooper on the coast, eh,
Pete? There is not his equal at staving, hooping, and bumping. He'll
take a plank of wood and turn it into a keg while another man would be
thinking of it.'

'Oh, you remember that, Captain Murgatroyd,' said the Dutchman sulkily.
'But you see me knocked about and shlagged, and bullied, and called
names, and what help have I? So help me, when the _Maria_ is in the
Texel next, I'll take to my old trade, I will, and never set foot on her
again.'

'No fear,' the Captain answered, laughing. 'While the _Maria_ brings in
five thousand good pieces a year, and can show her heels to any cutter
on the coast, there is no fear of greedy Pete losing his share of her.
Why, man, at this rate you may have a lust-haus of your own in a year or
two, with a trimmed lawn, and the trees all clipped like peacocks, and
the flowers in pattern, and a canal by the door, and a great bouncing
house-wife just like any Burgomeister. There's many such a fortune been
made out of Mechlin and Cognac.'

'Aye, and there's many a broken kopf got over Mechlin and Cognac,'
grumbled my enemy. 'Donner! There are other things beside lust-houses
and flower-beds. There are lee-shores and nor'-westers, beaks and
preventives.'

'And there's where the smart seaman has the pull over the herring buss,
or the skulking coaster that works from Christmas to Christmas with all
the danger and none of the little pickings. But enough said! Up with the
prisoner, and let us get him safely into the bilboes.'

I was raised to my feet and half carried, half dragged along in the
midst of the gang. My horse had already been led away in the opposite
direction. Our course lay off the road, down a very rocky and rugged
ravine which sloped away towards the sea. There seemed to be no trace of
a path, and I could only stumble al