"That's it, sir; I am," said Stumpy, "and, what's more, I haven't served my time. That's the mark of the chain-gang, and it will never come out. The first thing the guard will ask will be 'Show us your leg, mate,' and then where am I?"
Leicester thought for a moment deeply.
"All right," he said. "I've hit upon it. You get into that cave there, and I'll hasten up and hunt out some people. I can get some provisions, and will not be here until dark. We can creep away then and gain one of the towns."
So without waiting for any more objections or refusals, he hurried up the beach.
Stumpy crawled into the cave as he had been directed, and fell to nursing his knees, muttering:
"And to think as a gentleman should act like this to a hinfamous rogue like me! If I'd a known what he was like, if I wouldn't a spiked that villainous skipper and led a mutiny!"
In a short time he heard voices, and peeping out, saw Leicester coming down the beach accompanied by a crowd of people.
Stumpy at once concluded that Leicester had thought better of his generous offer to stand by him, and had sold him to the coastguard.
Therefore he kept in the cave until Leicester crawled in to him, and cried out, laughingly:
"Here's a pretty Irishman!" pointing to a peasant in a blue blouse and with an unmistakably French countenance. "Why, man, this isn't Ireland at all! We're on the coast of France!"