In equally bad humour the men did give way, and in about an hour were on
board of the cutter.
Every one was in a bad humour when the affair was made known; but
Smallbones observed, "that the dog could be no such great friend, as
supposed, of Vanslyperken's, to thwart his interests in that way; and
certainly no imp sent by the devil to his assistance." The ship's
company were consoled with this idea, and Jansen again repeated, "that
the _tog_ was but a tog, after all."
Chapter XVI
In which we change the scene, and the sex of our performers.
We must now leave the cutter to return to Portsmouth, while we introduce
to our readers a new and strange association. We stated that the boats
had been ensconced in a very small cove at the back of the Isle of
Wight. Above these hung the terrific cliff of the Black Gang Chyne,
which, to all appearance, was inaccessible. But this was not the case,
or the smugglers would not have resorted there to disembark their cargo.
At that time, for since that period much of the cliff has fallen down,
and the aspect is much changed, the rocks rose up from the water nearly
perpendicularly, to the height of fifty or sixty feet.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173