openly bought and sold.  Money could do much in those days of lax discipline, and the man who could pay and could give need have very few wants unsatisfied.  But Adam’s only desire was to be left undisturbed and alone; and as this entailed no undue amount of trouble after their first curiosity had been satisfied, it was not thought necessary to deny him this privilege.  From constantly going in and out, most of the officials inside the prison knew Eve, while to but very few was Adam’s face familiar; and it was on this fact, aided by the knowledge that through favor of a gratuity friends were frequently permitted to outstay their usual hour, that most of their hopes rested.  Each day she came Eve brought some portion of the disguise which was to be adopted; and then, having learnt from Reuben that the Mary Jane had arrived and was lying at the wharf unloading, not knowing what better to do, they decided that she should go to Captain Triggs and ask him, in case Adam could get away, whether he would let him come on board his vessel and give him shelter there below.

“Wa-al, no,” said Triggs, “I woan’t do that, ’cos they as I’se got here might smell un out; but I’ll tell ’ee what:  I knaws a chap as has in many ways bin beholden to me ’fore now, and I reckon if I gives un the cue he’ll do the job for ’ee.”

“But do you think he’s to be trusted?” Eve asked.

“Wa-al, that rests on how small a part you’m foaced to tell un of,” said Triggs, “and how much you makes it warth his while.  I’m blamed if I’d go bail for un myself, but that won’t be no odds agen’ Adam’s goin’:  ’tis just the place for he.  ’T ’ud niver do to car’y a pitch-pot down and set un in the midst o’ they who couldn’t bide his stink.”

“And the crew?” said Eve, wincing under Captain Triggs’s figurative language.

“Awh, the crew’s right enuf—­a set o’ gashly, smudge-faced raskils that’s near half Maltee and t’ other Lascar Injuns.  Any jail-bird that flies their way ’ull find they’s all of a feather.  But here,” he added, puzzled by the event:  “how’s this that you’m still mixed up with Adam so?  I thought ’twas all ‘long o’ you and Reuben May that the Lottery’s landin’ got blowed about?”

Eve shook her head.  “Be sure,” she said, “’twas never in me to do Adam any harm.”

“And you’m goin’ to stick to un now through thick and thin?  ’Twill niver do for un, ye knaw, to set his foot on Cornish ground agen.”

“He knows that,” said Eve; “and if he gets away we shall be married and go across the seas to some new part, where no one can tell what brought us from our home.”

Triggs gave a significant nod.  “Lord!” he exclaimed, “but that’s a poor lookout for such a bowerly maid as you be!  Wouldn’t it be better for ’ee to stick by yer friends ’bout here than—­”

“I haven’t got any friends,” interrupted Eve promptly, “excepting it’s Adam and Joan and Uncle Zebedee.”