"Great sharks! W'ot you lads doin' 'ere?"
"Came off the tug—what is this?"
"W'ot is w'ot?"
"This ship we're on?"
It seemed as if Malone's little eyes would pop out of his head.
"W'ot—didn't they ketch you? You don't mean to say you—you jest straggled aboard?"
"Sure we did. Catch us? Who is there to catch us?"
Malone stared as if at two ghosts. "Say! Say!" he said hoarsely. "You don't mean to say you ain't caught? You don't mean you run th' tug up 'ere an' boarded us! You don't mean——" He turned and whispered hoarsely inside: "It's th' lads off th' dock, though 'ow they got 'ere, an' w'ot they're—douse th' light, some o' you fellows."
A stifled consternation seized the card players, who crowded up to the port. A moment later all the lights were snapped out one after another.
"Tell us who there was to catch us," begged Leonard in a whisper.