'If a am to be any one else, I'd like to be a chap of nobbut eight stun. A'm welly done for!'
'It were as bloody a shame as iver I heerd on. Who's to go t' t' next fire, a'd like to know!'
'A tell yo' what, lads,' said Daniel, recovering his breath, but speaking in gasps. 'We were a pack o' cowards to let 'em carry off yon chaps as easy as they did, a'm reckoning!'
'A think so, indeed,' said another voice.
Daniel went on—
'We was two hunder, if we was a man; an' t' gang has niver numbered above twelve.'
'But they was armed. A seen t' glitter on their cutlasses,' spoke out a fresh voice.
'What then!' replied he who had latest come, and who stood at the mouth of the entry. 'A had my whalin' knife wi' me i' my pea-jacket as my missus threw at me, and a'd ha' ripped 'em up as soon as winkin', if a could ha' thought what was best to do wi' that d——d bell makin' such a din reet above us. A man can but die onest, and we was ready to go int' t' fire for t' save folks' lives, and yet we'd none on us t' wit to see as we might ha' saved yon poor chaps as screeched out for help.'
'They'll ha' getten 'em to t' Randyvowse by now,' said some one.
'They cannot tak' 'em aboard till morning; t' tide won't serve,' said the last speaker but one.