"I ain't goin' to show in it," said Smith, "and why should I? The Hampshire is short of two hands as I shipped in her myself. They don't go aboard when they should, and they turns up drunk at my house, and Billy puts them on board. Can I help it if he puts the wrong ones on her? Of course I cayn't. And if Billy finds the cash agreed on on 'em and hands it to me, why, I'll keep it till it's claimed by the owners of it!"
He winked his eye at Gardiner, and the journalist burst into laughter.
"They'll not touch me," he said, "and if they do, I shall either have the laugh on them or shan't care."
As he spoke, there was a message sent up from the street. A boy wanted to see Mr. Gardiner.
"A printer's devil, of course," said Gardiner. But he knew the word came from Billy.
"Billy, Mr. Smith's runner, gimme a quarter to run up to you, sir, and say it's all right," said the young hoodlum. "And he said you was to gimme another quarter."
Billy had said nothing of the kind, but the boy got it all the same.
And half an hour later Jack Hunt interviewed Billy the runner in about the same place in the dark road that Gawthrop had met him. The runner went through his pockets eagerly.
"Two thousand in the one night," said Billy. "Oh, ain't Smith doin' well? And two first-class guns as belongs to me. I'll shove 'em on board the Hampshire bright and early. Oh, I done it clean and neat."
He had great professional pride, and when he came alongside the Hampshire at four o'clock in the morning, and found all hands getting up the anchor, he felt that the thing was going to finish itself without a hitch.