Mike looked doubtful.

“To do the thing properly, your honour, one should take off the lower sole, take some leather out of the upper one, put some money in, and then sew it up again; but it would take more than an hour to do one pair.”

He thought for a moment.

“The quickest way would be to get out the inside lining of the sole, then to cut out enough leather for the money to lie in, then to put in the lining again.  It would not be soft walking on a twenty-mile march, but I think, if I get the lining in tight, with a few little nails to keep it from dropping out, if anyone takes the trouble to turn the boots upside down, I might manage it.”

“Well, let us commence at once, then, Mike.  We have all got riding boots, and can put them on before we are taken prisoners.  Do you take the linings out, as you say, and then we will help to cut out some of the leather of the upper sole.”

They were quickly at work.  Mike cut out enough of the thin lining to admit of a hole being made, large enough to hold ten louis in each boot, and he and the two officers then set to work, to cut out a sufficient depth of leather for the coins to lie side by side.  Half an hour sufficed for this.

The coins were put in.  Mike had, in the meantime, obtained a handful of pitch and melted it at the galley fire.  This he ran in over the gold, and then replaced the pieces of lining with hot pitch.

“There, your honours,” he said, when he had finished.  “I call that a neat job, and it would be hard, indeed, if the spalpeens find that there is anything amiss.  And, with these heavy boots, the extra weight won’t betray that there is anything hidden.

“Don’t put them on till the last moment.  Give them time to cool, for if any of it oozes out, you will stick your stockings so tight to it that you won’t get your foot out without laving them behind.”

Leaving their high boots in the cabin, the three young men went on deck.  The leading vessel of the British fleet was not more than a mile astern, while the French fleet was three miles ahead, having gained more than a mile since the chase began.  Mike had been given four louis, which he said he could hide in his mouth.

Five minutes later, there was a puff of smoke from their pursuer’s bow.  The ball struck the water close to them.

“Shall I hold on, Colonel?” the captain of the ship asked Colonel Wauchop.

“There is no use in your doing so.  That ship will be alongside in an hour, and it might only cause a useless loss of life were we to keep on.  If she were alone I should say, let her come alongside, and with your crew and our officers and men we might, if we had luck, take her by boarding; but, with the whole fleet close behind us, it would be madness to think of such a thing, as we have but twelve guns, and those of small weight.”

Accordingly, the topsails were run down, and the courses brailed up, and the ship lay motionless till the English frigate came up.  Signals had been exchanged between the English vessels, and as they came along six of them dropped boats, each with some twenty men in it.  While these rowed towards the prize, the fleet pressed on, under all canvas, in pursuit of the French squadron.