The latter part of this speech was addressed to Swankie, who no sooner beheld the keg than his eyes opened up until they resembled two great oysters.  His mouth slowly followed suit.  Davy Spink’s attention having been attracted, he became subject to similar alterations of visage.

“Hallo!” cried the captain, while the whole crew burst into a laugh, “you must have given them poison.  Have you a stomach-pump, doctor?” he said, turning hastily to Ruby.

“No, nothing but a penknife and a tobacco-stopper.  If they’re of any use to you——­”

He was interrupted by a loud laugh from Big Swankie, who quickly recovered his presence of mind, and declared that he had never tasted such capital stuff in his life.

“Have ye much o’t, sir?”

“O yes, a good deal.  I have two kegs of it,” (the lieutenant grinned very hard at this point), “and we expect to get a little more to-night.”

“Ha!” exclaimed Davy Spink, “there’s no doot plenty o’t in the coves hereaway, for they’re an awfu’ smugglin’ set.  Whan did ye find the twa kegs, noo, if I may ask?”

“Oh, certainly.  I got them not more than an hour ago.”

The smugglers glanced at each other and were struck dumb; but they were now too much on their guard to let any further evidence of surprise escape them.

“Weel, I wush ye success, sirs,” said Swankie, sitting down to his oar.  “It’s likely ye’ll come across mair if ye try Dickmont’s Den.  There’s usually somethin’ hidden there-aboots.”

“Thank you, friend, for the hint,” said the lieutenant, as he took his place at the tiller-ropes, “but I shall have a look at the Gaylet Cove, I think, this evening.”

“What! the Gaylet Cove?” cried Spink.  “Ye might as weel look for kegs at the bottom o’ the deep sea.”

“Perhaps so; nevertheless, I have taken a fancy to go there.  If I find nothing, I will take a look into the Forbidden Cave.”

“The Forbidden Cave!” almost howled Swankie.  “Wha iver heard o’ smugglers hidin’ onything there?  The air in’t wad pushen a rotten.”

“Perhaps it would, yet I mean to try.”

“Weel-a-weel, ye may try, but ye might as weel seek for kegs o’ gin on the Bell Rock.”

“Ha! it’s not the first time that strange things have been found on the Bell Bock,” said Ruby suddenly.  “I have heard of jewels, even, being discovered there.”

“Give way, men; shove off,” cried the lieutenant.  “A pleasant pull to you, lads.  Good night.”

The two boats parted, and while the lieutenant and his friends made for the shore, the smugglers rowed towards Arbroath in a state of mingled amazement and despair at what they had heard and seen.

“It was Ruby Brand that spoke last, Davy.”

“Ay; he was i’ the shadow o’ Captain Ogilvy and I couldna see his face, but I thought it like his voice when he first spoke.”

“Hoo can he hae come to ken aboot the jewels?”