“I’ll give you a light.”

Then they heard the quite distinctive sounds of a man being kicked off the ship, blasphemous threats from the wharf-side—silence.

A minute later Hank appeared, his lean face lit with the light of battle.

“Popped my head on deck,” cried Hank, “and saw a fellow on the wharf-side—I’ll swear it was Jake. He lit, and then I saw another one hunched down by the skylight. You heard me kicking him off.”

“Who’s Jake?” asked Candon, who had taken his seat again at the table.

“Watchman I fired for handing me lies more’n a fortnight ago.”

“Well,” said Candon, “the other man was Mullins, if I have my ears on my head.”

“Who’s Mullins?”

“Black Mullins, McGinnis’ left hand. Boys, we’ve gotta get out. How’s the wind?”

“Nor’west,” said Hank.

“And there’s a moon. Boys, we’ve gotta get right out now, get the whaleboat over and the Chinks ready for a tow clear of the wharf. Let’s see, the whole of the Heart crowd will be over at Tiburon, the old Heart will be in dry dock, for74 she’d started a butt and there’s weeks’ work on her, so they won’t be able to use her to chase us for another fortnight, get me? Well, see now, that guy will be back in Tiburon somewhere about two hours or more and he’ll rouse the hive. He’ll have seen me, lookin’ down through the skylight, and he’ll know you’re starting to-morrow. Not having a ship to chase us, they’ll board us. You’ll have a boatload of gunmen alongside somewhere about two in the morning.”

74

“You mean to say they’ll board us?” cried George.

“Yep.”

“But what about the police?”

“Police! Nothing. Why they’d beat it in a quick launch before the cops had begun to remember they weren’t awake.”

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