“You lads will see colder days yet; you may say the business is all up, and we’d better take the ‘Nancy’ over to the mackerel banks and work for a few honest pennies.”

“What makes you say that, Jake?”

“I’m only telling yer the truth; yer a chicken-hearted lot, and losing all yer game; for what? the pretty face of a she-devil!”

Too well the men all understood one-eyed Jake’s savage suggestion.

“You don’t think,” said one of them, “that the gal is dead against us?”

“Well, I think she is as dead against us as a few dollars in gold can make a female who’s fond of gewgaws, and ambitious to be a fine lady.”

“Do you mean to say Renie receives money?”

“Well, I don’t think bad enough of the gal to say she’d go agin us for fun.  I tell you, boys, the thing is dead agin us unless the gal is silenced!”

The men all entered loud protests; the girl was a great favorite yet with most of them, as she had grown up in their midst.

“Oh, I expected you’d growl when you learned the truth, and it’s the gal or us—­, as you all think so much of the gal, I propose we lay provision in the ‘Nancy,’ and go off after mackerel.

“What would you propose, Jake?”

“I propose sending the gal away.”

“You would do her no harm?”

“I wouldn’t harm a hair of her head; but she’s doing us a good deal of harm all the same.”

“It’s already been suggested to Tom Pearce to send the gal away.”

“He’ll never do it!”

“But he must.”

“It’s all right to say he must; but who’ll make old Tom Pearce do a thing when he’s made up his mind that be won’t?”

“What would you propose?”

“I’d propose that we smuggle the gal.”

“How smuggle her?”

“Take her out on the ‘Nancy,’ and put her aboard some outgoing vessel as a passenger.”

“That wouldn’t do, Jake”

“Then let’s go mackerel-fishing, for the other trade is knocked dead in the head.”

The men were all drinking, and became more or less excited under the influence of the liquor.

Jake was a bad fellow at heart, but he was one of the most daring men in the crew of jolly smugglers and the men had great confidence in his judgment.

“I tell you, boys, the gal must be disposed of, or she’ll give information right; just see how we stand now; there’s a boat due, there’s a big haul for us, and this man has been in our midst for two weeks or more, and he’s got all the points and—­” The man’s further speech was interrupted by the entrance of a stranger.

CHAPTER XV.

The man who suddenly entered in the midst of the speech of one-eyed Jake was Ballard, the man whom an hour or two previously that very gang of men had set to hang.

The crew of the “Nancy” gazed at the newcomer in astonishment, and a wicked gleam shone in the single eye of Jake.