“Just so, my brave lad,” said the smuggler chief, laughing. “I like to hear you talk in that light-hearted way, for it convinces me that, after all, you’ve got some good stuff in you, and that your heart is of old British oak.... Our boats are going out to-night; we expect a schooner off the shore from France about midnight, just after the moon sets. I’ll take you with me; and, to try you—unless you wish to be hung as a useless knave among us—I’ll give you the honour of mounting the stranger’s decks first.”
“First!” gasped Tim. “The first man to board the stranger’s decks! Why, she might be a revenue cruiser or a well-armed stranger.”
“That’s what she really is, a well-armed stranger, nothing else. She must come within gun-shot of us, for she’s obliged to round the headland in order to get into port.”
“In that case, sir,” said Tim, “if it’s all the same to you, I wouldn’t dare to have the impudence to take the place of honour, and be first to scale the stranger’s sides—it’s too much honour to confer on such a poor good-for-nothing as I am. I would much prefer to be last, if anything.”
The smuggler chief laughed out loudly, saying, “You’re a droll devil, Tim, and no fool, I can very well see; but come this way, I will introduce you to my comrades.”
So speaking, he tumbled over head, and fastened the trap through which Tim had fallen into the cave.
“See, Tim,” said the smuggler chief, as he entered a second cave in which dimly burned a horn lantern, “do you see this?” he said, pointing to a trap-door in the ceiling.
“Yes, I do,” said Tim, scrutinizing for the first time his tall, gaunt, rough-handed companion, and not much liking the looks of his black eyes, shaggy hair and beard, clothed, as he was, in red flannel and an immense pair of water-boots that reached above the knees, at the same time not forgetting to cast his eyes on two pistols and a cutlass that hung in his broad black belt.
“Well,” said the chief, “that trap-door leads into the old tavern. Nettle sells all our goods for us, and a pretty penny he gets by it. He’s very rich, but a good-hearted old cock as ever lived. He’s got a very pretty daughter, too, they call Katie; and if you join us, and prove yourself a brave fellow, as I know you are, why I’ll introduce you; and when you’re tired of smuggling, you can settle down, like many an old sinner does after he’s made heaps of money, and lead a quiet respectable life.”
“You’re very kind,” said Tim, with his head bewildered with all the chieftain said.