"Just so, uncle," said Minnie, with a laugh. "We have here some gin, smuggled all the way from Holland, and have come to ask your opinion of it."
"Why, Ruby, how came you by this?" enquired Lindsay in amazement, as he examined the kegs with critical care.
"Suppose I should say that I have been taken into confidence by the smugglers and then betrayed them."
"I should reply that the one idea was improbable, and the other impossible," returned the lieutenant.
"Well, I have at all events found out their secrets, and now I reveal them."
In a few words Ruby acquainted his friends with all that has just been narrated.
The moment he had finished, the lieutenant ordered his men to launch the boat. The kegs were put into the stern-sheets, the party embarked, and, pushing off, they rowed gently out of the bay, and crept slowly along the shore, under the deep shadow of the cliffs.
"How dark it is getting!" said Minnie, after they had rowed for some time in silence.
"The moon will soon be up," said the lieutenant. "Meanwhile I'll cast a little light on the subject by having a pipe. Will you join me, captain?"
This was a temptation which the captain never resisted; indeed, he did not regard it as a temptation at all, and would have smiled at the idea of resistance.