Now Jemmy, who was with all his wits at work, knew that it was Smallbones who cut the corporal adrift; but that did not alter the case, as the corporal did not know it.  It was therefore advisable to leave him in that error.  But he required proofs of the corporal’s sincerity, and he told him so.

“Mein Gott! what proof will you have?  De proof of de pudding is in de eating.”

“Well, then,” replied Jemmy, “will you shy the dog overboard?”

“Te tog?—­in one minute—­and de master after him.”

Whereupon Corporal Van Spitter went down into the cabin, which Vanslyperken, trusting to his surveillance, had left unlocked, and seizing the cur by the neck, carried him on deck, and hurled him several yards over the cutter’s quarter.

“Mein Gott! but dat is well done,” observed Jansen.

“And he’ll not come back wid de tide.  I know de tide, Mein Gott!” observed the corporal, panting with the exertion.

But here the corporal was mistaken.  Snarleyyow did not make for the vessel, but for the shore, and they could not in the dark ascertain what became of him, neither was the tide strong, for the flood was nearly over; the consequence was, that the dog gained the shore, and landed at the same stairs where the boats land.  The men were not in the boat, but waiting at a beer-shop a little above, which Vanslyperken must pass when he came down again.  Recognising the boat, the cur leapt into it, and after a good shaking under the thwarts, crept forward to where the men had thrown their pea-jackets under the bow-sheets, curled himself up, and went to sleep.

Shortly afterwards the lieutenant came down with the men, and rowed on board but the dog, which, exhausted with his exertion, was very comfortable where he was, did not come out, but remained in his snug berth.

The lieutenant and men left the boat when they arrived on board, without discovering that the dog was a passenger.  About ten minutes after the lieutenant had come on board, Snarleyyow jumped on deck, but, as all the men were forward in close consultation, and in anticipation of Mr Vanslyperken’s discovery of his loss, the dog gained the cabin, unperceived not only by the ship’s company, but by Vanslyperken, who was busy locking up the letters entrusted to him by the French agent.  Snarleyyow took his station under the table, and lay down to finish his nap, where we must leave him for the present in a sound sleep, and his snoring very soon reminded Vanslyperken of what he had, for a short time unheeded, that his favourite was present.

“Well, it’s very odd,” observed Spurey, “that he has been on board nearly half-an-hour, and not discovered that his dog is absent without leave.”

“Yes,” said Short.

“I know for why, mein Gott!” exclaimed the corporal, who shook his head very knowingly.

“The corporal knows why,” observed Jemmy Ducks.

“Then why don’t he say why?” retorted Bill Spurey, who was still a little suspicious of the corporal’s fidelity.