“I wish I knew whether ye was lyin’,” muttered Hickey, thoughtfully.  “I don’t feel a bit tired, yet.  Do you, Jerry?”

“Me?  The exercise has warmed me up fine,” grinned the smaller sailor.

“Mercy, messieurs, mercy!” wailed Gaston, sinking down to his shaking knees, for he feared that these grim tormentors meant to kill him.

“I’d just as soon you’d let up on the scoundrel, if you don’t mind, mates,” broke in Jack.  “You see what a cur he is when he isn’t having it all his own way.  I told him, back in the cave, that he’d be just this sort of a fellow if the tables happened to be turned.”

“Did ye say ye was going to turn him over to the officers?” asked Hickey.

“Yes,” spoke Jack Benson, decisively.  “A fellow plying the trade of this one needs to be locked up as long as possible.”

“Oh, no, no, no, my brave Captain!” implored Gaston, wobbling around upon his knees so as to face the submarine boy.  “Not the jail!  Not the prison!  Me!  I have always been as free as the birds of the air.  I would die in prison.”

“I can’t see where much loss will come in if you do,” retorted Jack, coldly.  “Hal, you brought the handcuffs out with you?”

He held up both pairs.

“No, no, no!” pleaded Gaston, almost tearfully.  “Not such disgrace as that!”

“Let me have a pair of the bracelets,” requested Hickey, holding out one of his hands.  “Now, my tine bird, let me clip yer wings.”

Gaston submitted meekly enough, then was dragged to his feet.

While Hal had brought out the lantern and the handcuffs, famished, thirst-tormented Jack Benson had looked after the water bottle and the sandwiches.  Now, as all hands trudged along toward the beach the young skipper ate and drank to his full content.

Arrived in town, they roused a cottager.  From him they learned where to find the police station.  Gaston was thrown into a cell, and Jack entered formal complaint against the fellow.

Jacob Farnum still awake, was found at the hotel.  When Hickey and Jerry returned aboard the gunboat neither felt so sorry about not having located a smuggler’s camp in full operation.  Jacob Farnum had taken the sailor pair apart, presenting each with a hundred-dollar bill.

CHAPTER XIV

A REMEMBRANCE FROM SHORE

It was a drowsy looking submarine party that retired to a room in the hotel to talk over the situation.

“Now, of course, first of all,” declared Jacob Farnum, “we must take word of this whole affair to the commanding officer of the gunboat.  As the representative, here, of the United States Government, he can give us some advice as to what to do.  I am wondering whether M. Lemaire and Mlle. Nadiboff can be arrested.”

“Hal,” demanded Jack, turning to his chum, “when you were prowling about at the cave, did you hear Gaston mention the name of M. Lemaire?”