“The Skeleton Crew and Wildfire Ned—it needs instant attention.” “It shall be attended to at once. Come this way.” The Smuggler Chief and his trusty messenger entered the apartment together. CHAPTER XX. CAPTAIN JACK PLAYS A TRUMP CARD—THE GAY COMPANY SURPRISED. As we have narrated in a previous chapter, Captain Jack and his friends insisted upon thrusting themselves uninvited upon the gay and fashionable company assembled in Phillip Redgill’s elegantly furnished suite of rooms. “Lord Smash and friends,” said the astonished domestic, announcing the stranger in a loud voice. “Lord who?” said Phillip, in astonishment, as he turned his eyes, and beheld Captain Jack before him. For a moment he knew not what to do or say. The thought struck him that they had actually found out all about old Bertram’s murder, and were come to arrest him. Cold sweat poured from his brow. His heart felt chilly, and his sight grew dim. But when Captain Jack, with a broad smile on his ugly face, shook Phillip by the hand, and said, “All serene, old fellow,” Redgill felt great relief, as he said to the company with a forced smile, “Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to your notice an eccentric friend of mine, who rejoices in the extraordinary title of Lord Smash. These gentlemen, also his companions, are friends of mine, every one; at least, they have proved themselves such, for I owe my life to their bravery and valour.” “Indeed!” said all, in surprise. “Men who would risk their own lives for the sake of another must be friends indeed.” “I quite agree with you there, ladies and gentlemen. I invited them to call upon me at their pleasure, and although they have come at an unlooked-for moment, I am none the less pleased.” “Certainly not,” chorused many, “certainly not; but how did the affair happen?” “This, then, accounts for your painful wound, Redgill?” several gallants said. “Just so,” said Phillip, glad at the happy turn the whole affair had now taken, and particularly pleased that the true character of the intruders had not leaked out. Upon the instant, and with ready invention, Phillip Redgill concocted an imaginary story, in which he did not fail to laud his own valour, and that of the new arrivals, all of which was agreed to in side-winks by Captain Jack and Faulkner, who, from time to time, drank heartily, and swore roundly that all the company heard was strictly true. “But now I come to look at your eccentric friend more closely,” said a gallant, tapping his snuff-box, and speaking in a whisper, “the more he reminds me of one of the crown officers, called Captain Jack.” This he said with a knowing wink to Phillip, who frowned. Captain Jack heard the observation, and approached the speaker, and whispered in his ear, “And now I come to look at _you_, my friend, the more I find you exactly correspond to a young gentleman as Captain Jack has been on the look-out for on the charge of forgery.”