"Get out the keg, lads, from which that came, and refill the flask.
Hold it well up in the moonlight, and see that ye don't spill a single
drop, as you value your lives. Hey! my man, what ails you? Does the
gin disagree with your stomach, or have you never seen a smuggled keg of
spirits before, that you stare at it as if it were a keg of ghosts!"
The latter part of this speech was addressed to Swankie, who no sooner
beheld the keg than his eyes opened up until they resembled two great
oysters. His mouth slowly followed suit. Davy Spink's attention having
been attracted, he became subject to similar alterations of visage.
"Hallo!" cried the captain, while the whole crew burst into a laugh,
"you must have given them poison. Have you a stomach-pump, doctor?" he
said, turning hastily to Ruby.
"No, nothing but a penknife and a tobacco-stopper. If they're of any
use to you--"
He was interrupted by a loud laugh from Big Swankie, who quickly
recovered his presence of mind, and declared that he had never tasted
such capital stuff in his life.
"Have ye much o't, sir?"
"O yes, a good deal. I have _two_ kegs of it" (the lieutenant grinned
very hard at this point), "and we expect to get a little more to-night."
"Ha!" exclaimed Davy Spink, "there's no doot plenty o't in the coves
hereaway, for they're an awfu' smugglin' set. Whan did ye find the twa
kegs, noo, if I may ask?"
"Oh, certainly. I got them not more than an hour ago."
The smugglers glanced at each other and were struck dumb; but they were
now too much on their guard to let any further evidence of surprise
escape them.
"Weel, I wush ye success, sirs," said Swankie, sitting down to his oar.
"It's likely ye'll come across mair if ye try Dickmont's Den. There's
usually somethin' hidden thereaboots."
"Thank you, friend, for the hint," said the lieutenant, as he took his
place at the tiller-ropes, "but I shall have a look at the Gaylet Cove,
I think, this evening."
"What! the Gaylet Cove?" cried Spink. "Ye might as weel look for kegs
at the bottom o' the deep sea."
"Perhaps so; nevertheless, I have taken a fancy to go there. If I find
nothing, I will take a look into the _Forbidden Cave_."
"The Forbidden Cave!" almost howled Swankie. "Wha iver heard o'
smugglers hidin' onything there? The air in't wad pushen a rotten."
"Perhaps it would, yet I mean to try."
"Weel-a-weel, ye may try, but ye might as weel seek for kegs o' gin on
the Bell Rock."
"Ha! it's not the first time that strange things have been found on the
Bell Rock," said Ruby suddenly. "I have heard of _jewels_, even, being
discovered there."
"Give way, men; shove off," cried the lieutenant. "A pleasant pull to
you, lads. Good night."
The two boats parted, and while the lieutenant and his friends made for
the shore, the smugglers rowed towards Arbroath in a state of mingled
amazement and despair at what they had heard and seen.
"It was Ruby Brand that spoke last, Davy."
"Ay; he was i' the shadow o' Captain Ogilvy and I couldna see his face,
but I thought it like his voice when he first spoke."
"Hoo _can_ he hae come to ken aboot the jewels?"
"That's mair than I can tell."
"I'll bury them," said Swankie, "an' then it'll puzzle onybody to tell
whaur they are."
"Ye'll please yoursell," said Spink.
Swankie was too angry to make any reply, or to enter into further
conversation with his comrade about the kegs of gin, so they continued
their way in silence.
Meanwhile, as Lieutenant Lindsay and his men had a night of work before
them, the captain suggested that Minnie, Ruby, and himself should be
landed within a mile of the town, and left to find their way thither on
foot. This was agreed to; and while the one party walked home by the
romantic pathway at the top of the cliffs, the other rowed away to
explore the dark recesses of the Forbidden Cave.