“Get out! You know what I mean. It’s pirates, not smugglers.”
Vince stared at him for a few moments, and then burst out laughing.
“Well, you’ve got it this time,” he said, “if you mean the cave.”
“And I do,” said Mike quietly. “Pirates; and that’s some of the plunder and booty they took from a ship over a hundred years ago. So now whose will it be?”
“Stop a moment,” said Vince, looking preternaturally serious; “let’s be certain who it was. Let me see: there was Paul Jones, and Blackbeard, and the Buccaneers. What do you say to its having belonged to the Buccaneers?”
“Ah! you may laugh, but my father said last night that he never knew of smugglers being on the island, but that there was a story about pirates having a cave here, and going out in their vessel to plunder the outward and homeward bound merchantmen.”
“Humph!” grunted Vince, with a sceptical look.
“And look here: he said the people had a superstitious belief that the pirates used to sail towards the Crag, and then disappear.”
“What!” cried Vince eagerly.
“Disappear quite suddenly.”