He carefully pulled the curtain across, and then said in a half-whisper, ’We let down one of they small crates rayther ’eavy like, sir, and started one of the boards, sir.’ ’That doesn’t matter,’ I said. ’Eh, but it do, sir! I banged ’im in again, but not afore I’d seen inside it—a hammunition box—sir—the same as what we’ve got for our twelve-pounder.’ My aunt! that made me all jumpy. ’Are you quite certain?’ I gasped. ’As certain as I’m astanding ’ere, sir. That ain’t no bloomin’ ’ydraulic machinery—they boxes marked "shafting" be guns, sir, that’s what they be.’ Hundreds of things rushed through my head. ’Did any one else see it?’ I asked, and was jolly glad when he shook his head. ’N’ary a one, sir; I covered ’em up too quick; and I ain’t going to tell no one neither, sir, for I ’ears your brother is takin’ a leadin’ part in this ’ere revolution, and maybe he’ll be wantin’ a goodish deal o’ ’ydraulic machinery before he’s through with it. That’s why I tells you, sir. I couldn’t keep it all to myself—in my chest—without tellin’ some one.’ My brain was so hot that I couldn’t think properly. ’Don’t mention it to a soul; I’ll think over it,’ I told him. ’No, that I won’t, sir; good-night, sir;’ and O’Leary left me. Well, if he was correct, and it was ever found out, the Skipper would get in an awful row; if any one found out that I knew about it, it would mean the ’chuck’ for me, and if I told what I knew, and it turned out to be true, old Gerald wouldn’t get his guns. You can pretty easily guess what I did—kept as mum as a mummy—and how I gloated over all that jumble of boxes and packing-cases and the long boxes marked ’shafting for hydraulic machinery’ when I walked through the battery next morning on my way to the bridge. As we passed under the stern of the _Hercules_ I saw Ginger on watch, and I was just going to wave to him when I remembered that we’d parted ’brass rags’ and didn’t. I wished to goodness that we hadn’t quarrelled. All that watch, as we drew nearer and nearer to the mainland, I kept on thinking of these crates and boxes, frightened lest any one else should have any suspicion about them, and couldn’t help remembering the words in that document which the Skipper had shown me, ’All law-abiding subjects of his Britannic Majesty are hereby warned to abstain from affording assistance to the aforesaid Gerald Wilson, on pain of being indicted for felony.’ ’Felony’ has a jolly nasty sound about it. And there was another thing. Suppose Gerald came off to the ship when we anchored at San Fernando. Well, they couldn’t arrest him unless he actually came aboard, and I determined to stay on deck all the time, and warn him off before he could get alongside. I’d tell all the watch-keeping lieutenants, and the ’Forlorn Hope’ and the ’Shadow’ too, for they kept watch in harbour. *CHAPTER VI* *The *_*Hector*_* goes to San Fernando*