"You thinks Custum 'Us, Jack?" said the
landlord.

"I do," said the Jack.

"Then you're wrong, Jack."

"AM I!"

In the infinite meaning of his reply, and his
boundless confidence in his views, the Jack took
one of his bloated shoes off, looked into it,
knocked a few stones out of it on the kitchen
floor, and put it on again. He did this, with the
air of a Jack who was so right that he could
afford to do anything.

"Why, what do you make out that they done
with their buttons then, Jack?" asked the
landlord, vacillating weakly.

"Done with their buttons?" returned the
Jack. "Chucked 'em overboard. Swallered
'em. Sowed 'em, to come up small salad. Done
with their buttons!"

"Don't be cheeky, Jack," remonstrated the
landlord, in a melancholy and pathetic way.

"A Custum 'Us officer knows what to do
with his Buttons," said the Jack, repeating the
obnoxious word with the greatest contempt,
"when they comes betwixt him and his own
light. A Four and two sitters don't go hanging
and hovering, up with one tide and down with
another, and both with and against another,
without there being Custum 'Us at the bottom
of it." Saying which, he went out in disdain;
and the landlord, having no one to rely
upon, found it impracticable to pursue the
subject.

This dialogue made us all uneasy, and me
very uneasy. The dismal wind was muttering
round the house, the tide was flapping at the
shore, and I had a feeling that we were caged
and threatened. A four-oared galley hovering
about in so unusual a way as to attract this
notice, was an ugly circumstance that I could
not get rid of. When I had induced Provis to
go up to bed, I went outside with my two
companions (Startop by this time knew the state of
the case), and held another council. Whether
we should remain at the house until near the
steamer's time, which would be about one in the
afternoon; or whether we should put off early
in the morning; was the question we discussed.
On the whole we deemed it the better course to
lie where we were, until within an hour or so of
the steamer's time, and then to get out in her
track, and drift easily with the tide. Having
settled to do this, we returned into the house
and went to bed.

I lay down with the greater part of my
clothes on, and slept well for a few hours.
When I awoke, the wind had risen, and the sign
of the house (the Ship) was creaking and banging
about, with noises that startled me. .Rising
softly, for my charge lay fast asleep, I looked
out of the window. It commanded the causeway
where we had hauled up our boat, and, as
my eves adapted themselves to the light of the
clouded moon, I saw two men looking into her.
They passed by under the window, looking at
nothing else, and did not go down to the
landing-place which I could discern to be empty,
but struck across the marsh in the direction of
the Nore.

My first impulse was to call up Herbert, and
show him the two men going away. But,
reflecting before I got into his room, which was at
the back of the house and adjoined mine, that
he and Startop had had a harder day than I, and
were fatigued, I forbore. Going back to my
window, I could still see the two men moving
over the marsh. In that light, however, I
soon lost them, and, feeling very cold, lay
down to think of the matter, and fell asleep
again.

We were up early. As we walked to and fro,
all four together, before breakfast, I deemed it
right to recount what I had seen. Again, our
charge was the least anxious of the party. It
was very likely that the men belonged to the
Custom House, he said quietly, and that they
had no thought of us. I tried to persuade
myself that it was so—as, indeed, it might easily
be. However, I proposed that he and I should
walk away together to a distant point we could
see, and that the boat should take us aboard
there, or as near there as might prove feasible,
at about noon. This being considered a good
precaution, soon after breakfast he and I set
forth, without saying anything at the tavern.

He smoked his pipe as we went along, and
sometimes stopped to clap me on the shoulder.
One would have supposed that it was I who was
in danger, not he, and that he was reassuring me.
We spoke very little. As we approached the
point, I begged him to remain in a sheltered place,
while I went on to reconnoitre; for, it was
towards it that the men had passed in the night.
He complied, and I went on alone. There was
no boat off the point, nor drawn up anywhere
near it, nor were there any signs of the men
having embarked there. But, to be sure the
tide was high, and there might have been some
footprints under water.

When he looked out from his shelter in the
distance, and saw that I waved my hat to him to
come up, he rejoined me, and there we waited:
sometimes lying on the bank wrapped in our
coats, and sometimes moving about to warm
ourselves: until we saw our boat coming round.
We got aboard easily, and rowed out into the
track of the steamer. By that time it wanted
but ten minutes of one o'clock, and we began to
look out for her smoke.

But, it was half-past one before we saw her
smoke, and soon afterwards we saw behind it
the smoke of another steamer. As they were
coming on at full speed, we got the two bags
ready, and took that opportunity of saying goodby
to Herbert and Startop. We had all shaken
hands cordially, and neither Herbert's eyes nor
mine were quite dry, when I saw a four-oared
galley shoot out from under the bank but a
little way ahead of us, and row out into the
same track.

A stretch of shore had been as yet between
us and the steamer's smoke, by reason of the
bend and wind of the river; but now she was
visible, coming head on. I called to Herbert