“Not yet, sir, but there’s chaps as don’t like me, and if they’ve been pressed they’ll be a-saying to-morrow morning as it arn’t fair for them to be took and me to get away. See?”
“Yes; but what difference will that make?” The smuggler laughed aloud.
“Only that they might put the skipper of the man-o’-war cutter up to where he’d find me.”
“But you had nothing to do with the cutter’s men—that officer was from the sloop?”
“Ay, sir; but they’re all working together, and the cutter’s skipper has got a black mark against my name.”
“Oh!” said Aleck, thoughtfully. “Then I suppose you’ll go into hiding?”
“That’s right, sir; but I shan’t feel safe then. Eh, Tom Bodger?”
“Right, messmet; they’ll be ferreting all along the coast arter yer. Tell you what I should do if I was you.”
“What?” said the man, eagerly.
“Have a good wash up in the morning, and then jump in a boat and go and board the sloop like a man.”