"I hope so; but a fathom of gravel will so crunch under those hoofs of yours that the very dead buried beneath might turn in their coffins--let alone a live dog wide awake from the end of his beastly cold snout to the tip of his tail. Does the ladder chafe you?" "No, sir. Makes me feel a bit asthmatic-like, and if them duniers get a sight of me they'll reckon I've visited the Continent to make a show of myself," he exclaimed, with a low, deep-sea laugh, whilst he spread his hands upon his breast, around which, under cover of a large, loose, long pea-coat, he had coiled a length of rope-ladder with two iron hooks at one end of it, which made a hump under either shoulder-blade. There was no other way, however, of conveying the ladder ashore. In the hand it would instantly have challenged attention, and a bag would have been equally an object of curiosity to the two or three Custom-House phantoms flitting about in triangular-shaped trousers and shako-like headgear. "There goes midnight, sir!" cried Caudel. As I listened to the chimes a sudden fit of excitement set me trembling. "Are ye there, Job?" called my captain. "Ay, sir," responded a voice from the bows of the yacht. "Jim?" "Here, sir," answered a second voice out of the darkness forward. "Dick?" "Here, sir." "Bobby?" "Here, sir," responded the squeaky note of a boy. "Lay aft all you ship's company and don't make no noise," growled Caudel. I looked up; the figure of the _douanier_ had vanished. The three men and the boy came sneaking out of the yacht's head. "Now, what ye've got to do," said Caudel, "is to keep awake. You'll see all ready for hoisting and gitting away the hinstant Mr. Barclay and me arrives aboard. You onderstand that?" "It's good English, cap'n," said one of the sailors. "No skylarking, mind. You're a listening, Bobby?" "Ay, sir." "You'll just go quietly to work and see all clear, and then tarn to and loaf about in the shadows. Now, Mr. Barclay, sir, if you're ready, I am." "Have you the little bull's-eye in your pocket?" said I. He felt and answered, "Yes." "Matches?" "Two boxes." "Stop a minute," said I, and I descended into the cabin to read my darling's letter for the last time, that I might make sure of all details of our romantic plot, ere embarking on as hare-brained an adventure as was ever attempted by a lover and his sweetheart.