There was a loud rustling, apparently about a hundred yards away, followed by the scraping of an oar over the side of the boat, and then the sound of paddling coming nearer and nearer, till the dimly-seen forms appeared out of the mist, and the boat grated against the side of the rough pier. "How goes it, sir?" said one of the men. "All right so far," replied Poole. "But how is it with you two?" "Offle, sir." "What do you mean?" "Heads so swelled up with skeeters that we can't wear our hats. We've finished the grub, and to-morrow morning we was a-going to toss whether I should eat him or him should eat I." "No nonsense," said Poole. "No, sir; there arn't been none," said the speaker, in a low growl. "This 'ere's been the roughest job I was ever on. We'd have given anything to come and jine our mates so as to get a shot. Anybody lost the number of his mess?" "No," said Poole. "No one even hurt." "'Cept us, sir, and we've each of us got ten hundred million wounds." "Wounds?" "Yes, sir; skeeters. Trunks as big as elephants. They'd have sucked poor Jem here quite dry, only he did as I did, made it up with water, and there was plenty of that.--But you've come to fetch us, haven't you?" "No; only to set you on the alert." "On the which, sir? What ship's that?" "Nonsense!" cried Poole. "We are all coming down to get on board the schooner as quickly as we can." "And a blessed good thing too," growled the other man. "But you'd better stop where y'are, for this 'ere's an awful place. Anybody might have my job for me." "Yes," said Poole, "I know it must have been terribly bad, but we are off again directly with the news that you two are all right." "That we are which, sir?" said the first speaker. "Oh, I say, Mr Poole, sir, don't go and tell the skipper a lie like that." "No, no; of course I'll tell him about how you have suffered; but we haven't been lying in feather-beds up there. Here, I say, Fitz, don't laugh." "I couldn't help it," cried Fitz. "No, sir, you couldn't," said the first man. "We couldn't at first. I laughed at Jem to see him smacking his own face all over, and he laughed at me and said mine looked beastly. And we didn't either of us look nice when the sun rose this morning, not even when we'd had a good wash. But it's all over now, as you are coming down, and the first thing Jem and me's going to do as soon as we gets aboard the schooner is to go and hide our heads in the hold. Say, Jem, old lad, I wonder what Chips will say to you when he sees your mug!" "Just the same as he will say to you, messmate, about yourn." "Hush! Don't talk. Get back into hiding again, and be ready to pick up the first load as soon as they come down." "What of, sir? Prisoners or plunder?" "Spaniards, my lad. Come, be serious. We are in a queer fix up there, shut in by the enemy. Have you seen anything of them here?"