"Don't ask questions, please. It's private business of the skipper's, under the orders of Mr Burnett and me." "Ho! All right, my lad; only oughtn't I to know what we are going to do? You are going off somewhere in the boat, eh?" "Yes, that's right." "And I'm not to come?" "Oh, but you are," cried Poole, "and I've told you the men I've picked for the job. Don't you think it's a good crew?" "Middling," said the boatswain grudgingly. "Might be better; might be wuss. But look here, young fellow; I don't like working in the dark." "I am sorry for you," said Fitz, "for this will be an all-night job." "Then I'd better take my nightcap," said the boatswain quietly. "But what's up? Are you going to make fast to the gunboat and tow her in?" "You know we are not," replied Poole. "Well, I did think it was rather an unpossible sort of job. But hadn't you better be open and above-board with a man, and say what it all means?" "It means that you and the other men are under the orders of Mr Burnett and me, and that we look to you to do your best over what's going to be a particular venture. You'll know soon enough. Till then, please wait." "All right," said the boatswain. "I'm your man. For the skipper wouldn't have given you these orders if it wasn't square;" saying which the man walked off to rouse up the little crew, all but the Camel, whom he left to his regular work in the galley. "We shan't want him yet," said Butters, as the boys followed him. "Had he better get us some rations to take with us?" "Oh no," said Poole. "We oughtn't to be away more than three or four hours if we are lucky." "Why, this 'ere gets mysteriouser and mysteriouser," grumbled the boatswain. "But I suppose it's going to be all right," and he proceeded to give his orders to the men. "Now we shall begin to have them full of questions," said Poole. "I begin to wish we were making it all open and above-aboard." "I don't," said Fitz; "I like it as it is. If we told everybody it would spoil half the fun." "Fun!" cried Poole, screwing up his face into a quaint smile. "Fun, do you call it? Do you know that this is going to be a very risky job?" "Well, I suppose there'll be some risk in it," replied the middy; "but it will be all in the dark, and we ought to get it done without a shot being fired. I say, though, I have been thinking that you and I must keep together, for I am afraid to trust myself over getting out that block. I should have liked to have done that first, but the splash it would make is bound to give the alarm, and there would be no chance afterwards to get that cable fast, without you let old Butters and the men do that while we were busy with the gun."