"Well, well, Wat!" said the voice of the old man, "D--me, if I'm a man to leave a poor boy at a pinch! We must just get the cutter run down; but she cannot be here you know till to-morrow night any how,--It must be a bad job though, that makes you so wild to get to France, my boy." "A bad job enough! A bad job enough!" answered a voice that Beauchamp now remembered full well. "But mark ye, William Small, when ye hear it all told--Mark ye, I say! I had nothing to do with the worst part of it. Those two fellows below have cheated me, and made a wretch of me. D--me, if I would not rather have gone up to the main chains and gone pitch over, head foremost, into the Bay of Biscay--But they did it, not I--mind that!" "I'd bet a puncheon they've killed the officer," replied the other. "Don't ask any questions, Willy Small!" replied his companion; "Don't ask any questions--It is safer for us all!" "Why, that's true enough!" replied the smuggler, "That's true enough! No, no! I'll not ask nor guess either, and then I know nothing about it, but that you and t'others wanted the cutter to go a pleasuring; and I'll take the lowest price you see too, Watty, so they can't bring me in as art and part for the run goods. But what is to be done with the young man in the next room? Why, Wat, he seems a gentleman--I say!" "Ay! he is a gentleman every inch of him," answered the other; "and such a one as one seldom sees--I would not have harm happen to him for the world--Why, you must just keep him for a day or two, till we are gone and safe, and then let him go. But I say, when you lock the door to-night upon him, keep you the key yourself, mind you. Those fellows below, have an ill-will to him; and if it had not been for me, they would have hove him overboard this blessed night--upon my soul they would!" "D--n their eyes and limbs!" exclaimed the other, "I should like to see them touch him in my house. If I would not tie them together, like a couple of hogsheads, and sink them out of water-mark. But as to locking the door, Wat, there is no use of that at all, bless ye. He can't stir an inch. Why, you've broken his leg amongst you!" The reply of the other, though sufficiently blasphemous--and we must here apologize to the more scrupulous reader for admitting into the dialogues just past, so many profane expletives, which we would not perhaps have done, having no delight in such matter ourselves, had not the love of truth and accuracy prevailed--The reply of the other, then, though sufficiently blasphemous, showed that he was bitterly grieved for the accident which had happened to Beauchamp; and a long conversation ensued in regard to the necessity of sending for a surgeon.