“They eat like pigs,” I heard the captain say to the sergeant, who had returned to his lair on the straw.  “These peasants never lose the ill manners bred in them.  And those English dogs who have escaped from prison—­how do I know they are peasants, too, Jules?”

“I can not tell, mon capitaine,” says the sergeant.

“Why, because you may be sure they have done a foolish thing, like these deserters of ours.  They are seamen; depend upon it, they have made straight for the coast, and we shall soon hear that they have been taken.”

I could not help smiling at the ingenuousness of the captain’s reasoning.

“My faith!” he went on, “I wish we were going from Rennes to St. Malo instead of from St. Malo to Rennes.  I should have loved to join in the hunt for the rascals, and I doubt not you, Jules, would be glad enough to get some portion of the reward offered for their capture.  Ah, well! the others will have the luck; but I would give something to see those English dogs when—­”

And here I pushed wide the door.

“Am I permitted to enter, messieurs?” I said in my best French, and giving the captain a pleasant smile.  Lying at full length with his head on his arms, he could not clearly see me.  The men stared at me, but did not move nor speak, waiting dutifully for their officer.  He raised himself on his elbow.

“Who are you?” he asks, looking me up and down from my bare feet to my unkempt head.

“I, monsieur,” said I steadily, though my heart was thumping at a furious rate—­“I, monsieur, am one of the English dogs—­at your service.”

This announcement was sufficiently startling to account for the temporary paralysis that seemed to have fallen on the party.  They stared at me, speechless.  During that moment I had thrown a rapid glance to my left.  The three deserters were lying against the wall; between them and me were the stacked muskets of the soldiers.

While the men were still fixed in their astonishment, I sprang three paces to the left, caught up the muskets in both arms, and dashed towards the door.  That released them from the spell; the men jumped to their feet and rushed after me.  What happened to the captain I learned afterwards from Joe.  He suddenly found himself heaved up into the air:  four brawny arms had shoved up the trap door on which he was lying, my dash for the door having been the signal I had communicated to them through Runnles.  When the officer came sprawling down on the straw again, some feet away from his former position, he was pounced on by Joe and the bosun, who made short work of tying him up with his own sword strap.