“We could do no good now,” said Archy, “for of course I am not sure where the entrance is.”
“Must be getting toward morning too, and time to be aboard, Mr Raystoke. There, sir, sometimes we win and many more times we lose. We’ve lost this time, so let’s go back aboard, according to orders. Forward right, my lads, and let’s make the best of it.”
“Never mind, Mr Gurr,” said Archy in a low voice. “I was regularly in despair as I was being taken from one prison to be shut up in another, when I ran up against you. Perhaps we may run up against the smugglers after all.”
“Wish we might,” said the master. “Oh, how I could fight!”
But they ran up against no smugglers on their way to the boats, which they hailed from the strand, where the water was very low; and soon after they were passing in the lowest of low spirits, out of the cove to the open channel, when once more every one was thrilled with excitement, for right away in the offing they heard a gun.
Chapter Thirty Seven.
“Can’t be, sir,” said Gurr, as he tried to pierce the darkness, “because the skipper must be lying at anchor where we left him.”
“Hah! See that?” cried Archy, as the men bent to their oars and made the now phosphorescent water flash.