“I tell you, Jack, you does n’t know Cap’in Spike as well as I does,” Josh said, in continuance of the discourse.  “No, you does n’t know him at all as well as I does.  If he finds out that anybody has quit dis brig dis werry night, woful will come!  It no good to try to run; I run t’ree time, an’ Simon here run twice.  What good it all do?  We got cotched, and here we is, just as fast as ever.  I knows Cap’in Spike, and does n’t want to fall in athwart his hawse any more.”

“Y-e-s, dat my judgment too,” put in the cook.  “We wishes you well, Jack, and we wishes Miss Rose well, and Mr. Mulford well, but we can’t, no how, run ath’art hawse, as Josh says.  Dat is my judgment, too.”

“Well, if your minds are made up to this, my darkies, I s’pose there’ll be no changing them,” said Jack.  “At all ewents you’ll lend us a hand, by answering any hail that may come from aft, in my watch, and in keepin’ our secret.  There’s another thing you can do for us, which may be of service.  Should Captain Spike miss the boat, and lay any trap to catch us, you can just light this here bit of lantern and hang it over the brig’s bows, where he’ll not be likely to see it, that we may know matters are going wrong, and give the craft a wide berth.”

“Sartain,” said Josh, who entered heartily into the affair, so far as good wishes for its success were concerned, at the very moment when he had a most salutary care of his own back.  “Sartain; we do all dat, and no t’ank asked.  It no great matter to answer a hail, or to light a lantern and sling him over de bows; and if Captain Spike want to know who did it, let him find out.”

Here both negroes laughed heartily, manifesting so little care to suppress their mirth, that Rose trembled lest their noise should awaken Spike.  Accustomed sounds, however, seldom produce this effect on the ears of the sleeper, and the heavy breathing from the state-room, succeeded the merriment of the blacks, as soon as the latter ceased.  Jack now announced his readiness to depart.  Some little care and management were necessary to get into the boat noiselessly, more especially with Biddy.  It was done however, with the assistance of the blacks, who cast off the painter, when Jack gave the boat a shove to clear the brig, and suffered it to drift astern for a considerable distance before he ventured to cast loose the sail.

“I know Spike well,” said Jack, in answer to a remonstrance from the impatient Rose concerning his delay:  “A single flap of that canvas would wake him up, with the brig anchored, while he would sleep through a salute of heavy guns if it came in regular course.  Quick ears has old Stephen, and it’s best to humour them.  In a minute more we’ll set our canvas and be off.”