“Yes, sir; but,” said the smuggler, with a bitter laugh, “it’s all one-sided like. I didn’t begin on them—they began on me, to rob a poor fellow of his liberty. Now, I know it was a foolish thing for those women to get hold of that boy, half smother him, and shut him up here; and I don’t want to keep him.”
“Of course not.”
“But what am I to do? If I let him go, and say ‘Run for it,’ he’ll be back before I know where I am with another boat’s crew to take me; and of course, being a man, I shall have to stand fire for everybody. ’Sides which it’ll be making known to the Revenue officers where our lair is, and that’ll be ruin to everybody.”
“Then you must escape, Eben, for that poor fellow must be set free.”
“Don’t see it yet, Master Aleck,” said the man, stubbornly. “It wants thinking about. Simplest way seems to me to be that I should put him out of his misery.”
“What! Kill him?”
“Something of that sort, sir.”
“Bah! You’re laughing at me,” cried Aleck. “Come, no nonsense—take me to him; and he must be set at liberty directly.”
“Well, don’t be in quite such a hurry, Master Aleck,” said the man. “You ought to play fair after what has passed ’twixt us two.”
“And so I will, Eben. I have promised you that I will not tell anyone about this place.”