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"What's this, Short?" observed Coble: "here is a new freak; we start at
midnight, I hear."
"Yes," replied Short.
"Something quite new, anyhow:--don't understand it: do you?"
"No," replied Dick.
"Well, now Jemmy's gone, I don't care how soon I follow, Dick."
"Nor I," replied Short.
"I've a notion there's some mystery in all this. For," continued Coble,
"the admiral would never have ordered us out till to-morrow morning, if
he did not make us sail this evening. It's not a man-of-war fashion, is
it, Dick?"
"No," replied Short.
"Well, we shall see," replied Coble. "I shall turn in now. You've heard
all about Smallbones, heh! Dick?"
Short nodded his head.
"Well, we shall see: but I'll back the boy 'gainst master and dog too,
in the long run. D--n his Dutch carcass, he seems to make but small
count of English subjects, heh!"
Short leant over the gunwale and whistled.
Coble, finding it impossible to extract one monosyllable more from him,
walked forward, and went down below.
A little before twelve o'clock a boat came alongside, and Ramsay stepped
out of it into the cutter.


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